Why Sucking is Okay

You want to release a big-bad-ridiculously-innovative new product called the Thermomastolometer. But, "I'll finish it when I feel it's perfect," you tell yourself. No sweat. Days pass, and you're still stalling. "Perfection takes time," your mantra goes. So, you build-and-build-and-build-and-build.

And, you continue building until...you die.

Kaput. Too bad, you should've known perfection doesn't exist. Even if you think you're 5 miles away, a million more miles of road will appear two miles ahead -- wasting your precious time on Earth even more. Take the quick finish line -- and worry about the other finish lines later.

It's Okay to Suck

Look at YouTube's early days. It started as a frickin' web-2.0-hip-hip-hooray dating site. What happened?

1. They generated users who loved their online video formats.
2. They evolved their site to meet demanding online video needs.

The lesson?

It's okay to suck because you'll evolve your product over time anyway.

What if Apple had waited until they "perfected" their iPod?

Boo. We'd have nothing -- because hey, they're still working on new iPod features as we're typing up this sha-ding right now.

Release That Bad Boy ASAP

1. You've built XYZ features for your shiny new product.
2. You wait until you can "perfect" that product.
3. Time drives XYZ features to become obsolete in favor of new ones.

(ala: iPod, iPod video, iPod nano, etc.) The more time you wait, the quicker you'll make your product outdated. Remember:

• Today's MySpace wasn't yesterday's MySpace.
• Today's Starbucks wasn't yesterday's Starbucks.
• Today's Whole Foods wasn't yesterday's Whole Foods.
• Today's Google wasn't yesterday's Google.

That Sergey dude didn't think of Google AdWords until his company needed cash. Until then, he and partner Larry were just running a simple search engine without a revenue generator. So, it's okay to suck. It gives you somewhere to start. It's a requirement to succeed. Even billionaire founders started sucking.

Start sucking.

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