I recently backed out of a project because I started to see analysis paralysis setting in, and this was at the planning stage! Very smart people with a lot of experience in the corporate world, good at navigating politics, good public speakers, but these skills don’t translate to the startup bootstrappers mentality. The goals were unattainable, the team too big, lack of laser focus and discipline, the kitchen sink mentality. All this project needed was a few people and some simple goals followed by some heads down hard work and a slightly scary soft launch to test consumer response.
Many people, myself included, self-loathingly praise themselves for perfectionism. But really it’s a procrastination tool of the highest level–An excuse to never get anything done, because it’s never, ever, quite good enough. If only I had realized this ten years ago! This is definitely a symptom of corporate management, where incremental safe steps are made in an environment where experimentation is translated into “risk of public failure and embarrassment”. The reality is you must risk failure at some point to get something done fast enough for it to move forward at a speed that you can afford. The faster you get it done, the less financial risk and the more opportunity you have to test in a live environment.
I think the concept of “Good to Great” is a little flawed. Not in the process but the outcome. Here’s the reality: The person who gets to market with their new brand/service/product is generally at a huge advantage. She’s got the turf on her side, and over time as everyone is catching up to her she’s also suddenly got the advantage of experience as well. While the other 5 people who had the same idea are “perfecting” their offering, the person who got it to “good” launched, built a community, developed a following, and got stuff done.
Plan it out, be sure the idea is sound, do your research and then get it done. Maybe skip the venture funding you think you need and self fund. Get it to market and get people using it, then test and improve as you go. I guarantee you can perfect it later, but be sure perfecting it now isn’t preventing you from even getting it done at all.