Just Start

“We have a strategic plan; it’s called doing things.” - Southwest Airlines CEO Herb Kelleher

“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.” – Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

Planning only takes us so far. Planning also has an insidious way of taking over. In every endeavor there comes a time to just start.

Just starting can be messy, but so can waiting around for the perfect plan to develop. If more people just started using what they know and figuring out the rest, we would all be a lot better off.

So, please, stop trying to be perfect and just start.

By the way, tonight is the start of The Art of Business Road Trip! I will be in Boston and New York City tomorrow and in the jungles of Costa Rica on Friday. I plan on meeting and talking with as many small business owners, entrepreneurs and other vagabonds as I can during my travels and will be posting interviews, pictures and other interesting business and travel tidbits along the way.

Please let me know if you are in the area, because I would love to talk with you about how you just started something.