What to do vs. What to do next
Incremental change is much easier than completely novel innovation
Knowing what to start versus knowing what to do next are two very different things:
Watching a TV show I can often guess how the story will unfold.
There is a setup where you might want something to happen but the potential for a more dramatic and interesting story is usually what occurs. Often the lighting, the music, and the speed of the cuts can help you predict when and what a plot twist will be.
After a while, you can get quite good at predicting how an episode will end.
That doesn’t mean you know how to write a TV show in the slightest.
You don’t know how to start a script that will provide opportunities for stories that are interesting.
You don’t know how to create characters that will balance off each other well.
You don’t know how to create a compelling world that watchers want to come back to.
You just know what to do next in a TV show.
You don’t know how to start a TV show.
It’s the same with business
It’s easy to look at a business that works and see clear ways to improve it.
You can see all the things they aren’t doing and notice the backward nature of all the processes they have.
It doesn’t mean you know how to start a business.
You don’t know how to invent a product that delights customers enough that they will keep buying it.
You don’t know how to convince people to believe in your ideas or build a team of amazing people who have numerous other opportunities to work on instead of building your product that doesn’t even exist yet.
You don’t know how to deal with endless people telling you the idea won’t work, not having enough money, and the constant strain on your personal relationships.
You don’t know how to complement your strengths and cover your weakness as a founder and fix all the backward processes you’ve built whilst keeping the entire project alive by the skin of your teeth.
You may know what to do next.
You don’t know how to start a business.
Coaching vs Creating
Being a coach is easy (assuming you’re a really good listener, most people aren’t…).
Helping people work out what to do next in their situation is usually very logical.
You don’t need the answers and can rely on asking useful questions. Back it all up with some morale support and provide clear accountability.
Being a creator is hard.
Working with a blank canvas to create the concept of something that will work requires a much deeper level of expertise and understanding.
Doing the initial groundwork to lay novel foundations upon which there will be future logical steps is monumentally difficult.
It’s the difference between adding colour to a colouring-in-book or creating a colouring-in-book from scratch.
You need to know all the inputs and outputs in the future and how everything will fit together.
You need to know your role in any project over its lifetime and what sacrifices you will make in the process.
People don’t like a blank canvas because they don’t know what, how or where to start.
And it is these questions that you really need to work out for yourself.
Zero to One
When you think like a creator the most impressive part of anything is how it starts and sets itself up for success. Then it’s just a question of momentum and logic.
The start of Lord of the Rings sets itself up for everything that happens. The ending battle might be your favorite part, but it is the beginning that got you there.
Once you’ve laid a foundation and started your going through the motions. There isn’t room for high-level innovation to mold something much better for you.
If you’ve raised money from VCs you can’t pivot into a lifestyle business.
If you create content for a 5-minute daily format you can’t make hour-long documentaries once a year.
Perhaps you want to optimize for audience size or growth potential. Maybe you’re more interested in personal free time and flexibility or the ability to obsess over the level of craftsmanship.
Knowing these things first are crucial, as they are hard to change later.
Bad Psychology
As I’ve got better at analyzing scripts I’ve better understood why I get frustrated by some stories. It burns me when a character does something that a real person would never do or which doesn’t match the rest of their character’s psychology.
I switch off when this often small out-of-character act is then used to define the whole next section of a plot.
Let’s say you have a kind and honest character who doesn’t admit some minor mistake that leads to a misunderstanding with the girl he likes.
She is somehow massively offended and it ruins their relationship.
He is awfully sad and of course, he could just tell her what happened but he doesn’t.
Instead, he spends the next two episodes convincing her he is kind and wonderful in every other way possible. It’s funny and romantic but pointless.
Both episodes could have been deleted if he’d just behaved in line with everything we know about him.
There is no requirement for him to behave like a massive douchebag in regard to one single thing except that it creates this challenge for him to win the girl when he already has her.
Don’t be weak
When an unbelievable setup is the hinge of the rest of the plot I’m bored and pissed off.
Weak writers rely on magical changes in psychology to pull off the key parts of their plot.
Weak founders think they can magically change their own psychology to do something they don’t want to do.
When they reach the moment they have to sit down and grind through something they don’t enjoy for 3 years they fail.
Their psychology magically doesn’t change and they get frustrated, burnt out, and quit.
Never rely on magical changes in psychology.
For the sake of good character
I believe that as we go through life we are all writers of our own story.
We make up the story of our life as we live it every day. We make the decisions about what we do and don’t do.
A writer needs to understand their characters to make a good story.
You need to understand the psychology of your own character if you want your own story to be good.
Of course, the rules can be bent and you can morph yourself over time and do things you didn’t believe possible. Growth mindset.
In the same way that you can change what you can do and enjoy doing, you can also change what you want and stop aspiring to things you are never going to do.
There is no right answer to what you should start.
The most important thing is to write that first line, make that brushstroke and not be afraid to kill your darlings. To wipe the slate clean and start again having learned something.
Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this.
For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.
Henry Ford
Keep on reinventing. Each day is a new one. Start with the first 2 minutes is my go to ❤️