“Screw it, Just do it”

The popular start up slogan “screw it, just do it” is credited to the great entrepreneur, Richard Branson. This style of business ideology that has seen him build a business empire is an inspiration to young start up entrepreneur out there. According to Branson, “Most young people with good ideas … will find that 99 percent of people will give them every reason why their idea’s been done before or why it’s not a good idea or why they’re going to fall flat on their face. “In the end, you have to say, ‘Screw it. Just do it.”

If you are a good biography reader just like me, you would have read biography about lots of great people and companies.

Many of this great entrepreneur one time or another has being told to let go of the ideas they so much believe in. That such idea cannot see the light off the day, or someone has done it before and it’s not working so theirs cannot work. But as an entrepreneur who have a clear vision behind their ideas, they go ahead to just do it and today the rest is history.

At the age of 15, Branson dropped out of high school to start his first business, a magazine for young activists titled Student. 

Four years later, in 1970, Branson began selling records by mail. In 1971, he opened his first record store. In 1972, he opened a recording studio. In 1973, he started his own record label. The Virgin business empire had begun, and Branson had not yet turned 24. 

Today, the Virgin Group is a well-regarded global conglomerate of about 350 companies, branching into the entertainment, travel, and mobile industries.

You will not always get positive result out of the action you make with your instinct. As an entrepreneur, while you need to take a calculated risk, being over cautious will lead to failure more than success. Successful people not just entrepreneur all over the world are well known for taking a bold step average people consider impossible that yielded positive result than negative. 

It is better to try and fail than never to try at all;

1.       By trying you will know what works and what’s not instead of being paralyse with your thought.

2.       You will learn from the mistakes that will likely lead to discovery of the best way to do it right.

Moreover, successful entrepreneur learn by doing, they fail occasionally and move one to find the best way to get it done. This not only yield result but build their confident towards taking many of such action in the future, because they learn that at last the result is more positive than negative. “If you have enough determination.... It’s more likely that you will succeed because of what you learned from the occasions when you didn’t succeed," Branson said. “The most important thing is to not be put off by failure.” 

Analysis Paralysis

According to Wikipedia “Analysis paralysis or paralysis by analysis is the state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made, rather than try something and change if a major problem arises. A person might be seeking the optimal or "perfect" solution upfront, and fear making any decision which could lead to erroneous results, while on the way to a better solution. 

As an entrepreneur, in most cases the outcome of your action is as a result of over-analyzing an idea instead of take bold step to start implementing. “People who have a concept but not necessarily a detailed strategy are more likely to have that entrepreneurial je ne sais quoi (I do not know what). “I hate entrepreneurs with beautiful business plans,” says Barbara Corcoran, Co-star of TV’s Shark Tank. She recommended, “Invent as you go,” rather than spending time writing a plan at your desk. In fact, she believes that those who study business may be prone to overanalyzing situations rather than taking action.

While you are advice to conduct necessary research and do due diligence, trying to have 100% problem fix on paper instead of taken action is not too good for start up entrepreneur.

So get to work, “just do it”.