Often we mess up with things that we start. There are apparent causes that take us through the way. Starting up something, anything is a demanding endeavor. But making a project successful takes more toil than starting itself. For each case the struggle is different. In earlier case you have to have psychological strength where later case demands more organized approach to work, perseverance, hard work, proactive attitude, and strategic soundness and so on. In earlier you deal with ideation, passion and courage and in latter with implementation, hard work, perseverance, and approach to work, strategy and deliverability.
However, starting up itself is a hard part of the work but making idea happen takes more work than starting one. From whatever little experience I have I can say that running a start-up is a messy and tiresome job. As I have discovered lately, most of the problems arise from lack of clarity and understanding. It happens in start-up that one does not know what to do, how to do and so on. But to make progress you have to have a clear way out to move on. If you have a destination in mind and know what to do to be there you can make progress even in the midst of chaos.
I have found few issues critically important to be defined clearly for making ideas happen. Without having a crystal clear understanding and implementation approach of those issues you can hardly make any progress as a person and as team whole.
1. Specific responsibility & deliverable
Knowing what you are doing is the very basic of starting. Define your responsibility. You have to know what you are making. Make sure everyone of your team knows their responsibility & deliverable and what they are ought to create for the venture. Specific deliverable makes you work easy by putting point into places that where you are going and your day to day responsibility to make it there. Along with that it also helps you to measure your work. If you can see what you need to do then it gets easier to do it right.
2. Set mile stone:
Anything that can’t be measured does not exist. Setting few milestones is how you can know your way ahead and measure your progress. A set of clear mile stones is something you work through over time and can make yourself accountable for. Goals keep us accountable and help us to track where we are in the middle of journey.
3. Reward and achievement:
Although the purpose of entrepreneurial endeavor is not external recognition but the recognition is important to keep us moving. Building something is a lonely journey and without having periodic motivator it could become difficult to get going. Set goals and set reward for accomplishment. To keep motivation alive you need to ensure a consistent reward process either it is psychological or otherwise. Treat yourself well when you do well.
4. Reprimand & punishment:
Keeping motivation alive is a two way approach. You need to tell what will happen if anyone don’t do the work. If nothing happens for not accomplishing a particular responsibility then the probability is that most people would avoid it. We need to set bar for ourselves. However, there is a close connection between reward and punishment. If your punishment outweighs reward then it can backfire.
5. Influences:
Influence and control is two different things. Control is imposed but influence is spontaneous. In fact it is very loosely related to direction. When you have influence on people they do things for you without being directed, requested or guided. Influence is subtle but yields good result.
6. Build and look back:
While you are busy building your beloved venture look back periodically. There might be some crack inside the system and it will require your regular attention to get fixed. Similarly, there will be part that will require less attention and will do well without your close attention. Reflect when you have time to check crack inside system and to make existing one better.
Making idea happen is the hardest part of the work. You need to organize yourself, consolidate your power and work hard. If you fail to clarify issues that derive the speed you are bound to be a failure. When you don’t know what to do next, check back your goals and get moving.
