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.