The Tanren Phase: Escape the Trap of Premature Perfection
You're Wasting Time on Details That Don't Matter (And What to Do Instead)
I once spent three weeks reading books, and watching YouTube videos, on how to automate a business with hundreds of employees.
Want to know how many employees I had at the time?
Two. Including myself.
I was so caught up in preparing for imaginary success that I forgot to actually achieve it. As Steve Jobs famously said, "Real artists ship."
Sound familiar? Maybe you're not daydreaming about managing a massive team. But I bet you're polishing something that doesn't exist yet:
Learning how to scale when you haven't even started
Buying domain names for projects you haven't validated
Agonising over colour schemes for a website with no content
Obsessing over the perfect logo for a product you haven't launched
Researching advanced marketing strategies for a business with zero customers
Your friends are too polite to say it, so I will: This is all just fancy procrastination, and you know it. You're not preparing, you're stalling.
You're polishing a sword that doesn’t exist.
So what's the alternative?
Take a lesson from Japanese sword smiths and embrace the Tanren phase of business.
Let’s dive in:
I’ve also included a 35 minute audio presentation I gave on this concept for you below.