Ship Today, Not in 5 Years

You have to ship as quickly as possible. This is the secret. In the early stages of society, nothing was perfect; however, in the people's perspective, it was more than perfect. See, perception matters a lot in business and product development. It does not need to be perfect—it just needs to be functional. Perfectionism will hold you back; however, I can guide you even if you have this issue.

You have to have a clear goal in mind. Not a daily goal, not a weekly goal, not a yearly goal—but a final goal. A final goal is essentially what you want your final product to look like—for instance, how much you want to earn from it, or how many people you want to inspire or help.

The final objective should always be considered first, as it will facilitate the formulation of smaller goals. Envision the final objective as the destination on a map; with a clear destination in mind, it becomes easier to identify the appropriate pathways to achieve it. In theory, it is possible to establish smaller objectives and subsequently determine the final destination at a later date. However, I question whether this approach is truly desirable. Do you genuinely desire to observe the trajectory of events and subsequently make a decision? In my opinion, this is not the case.

Shipping your product to the masses requires a lot of bravery, because you're not just fighting with the public view—you're also fighting with yourself. You will argue with yourself more than the public would. "Oh, is this footer the right colour?", "Oh, is this code optimized enough?", "Am I able to scale this?"—Honestly, I get the same feeling when I'm shipping new products and services. It's that feeling that the service I want to provide is not good enough. In some instances, I am right; however, that does not matter because 95% of the end users don't really care about how the site looks or how it functions. They just care about what you're providing and if the service is functional enough for them to complete their tasks.

Do not ship garbage. Shipping garbage—or invaluable projects—will not get you anywhere where you want to get. Shipping garbage quickly is even worse. Instead, concentrate on delivering valuable and distinctive ideas. While showcasing your abilities through projects such as calculators is important, they are no longer viewed as groundbreaking. Prioritize speed and innovation. Present ideas that are currently relevant and impactful, even if they are not entirely novel. The key is to provide value to your target audience. Shipping out worthless ideas will not enhance your development or business skills.

You must ship your barebones idea quickly. Developing it until you perfect it will drain you, making you crash, and you have no idea if this will work or not. This is why you want to avoid shipping late. You do not know what will happen; however, you can kind of see if the project will fail early if you ship quickly.