Just Go 1-0
Going 1-0 is a common mantra in the NFL playoffs. You need to earn the right to play each week. I like it for startups as well.
Today is all you can control. The next game is not guaranteed. You just have to perform here and now. Prune everything else away. Go 1-0.
You and your startup are similar. You dream of going undefeated. These dreams fill pages in decks, designs, and projections. This is good. You need a vision. A startup is a company designed to grow fast and fast-growing things need vision.
Vision doesn’t push things forward in the short term. Most startup advice is about fulfilling this vision. Silicon Valley sells a preordained arc of a grand journey and growth.
But growth takes time. Personal growth, team growth, user growth, revenue growth. It cannot be realized in one day. Startups need iteration.
In the early days, you just need to figure things out incrementally. This is difficult. Especially if you’ve left an environment with lots of plans, structure, and deadlines.
So how do you go about it?
Like in any type of creative work, the best way to figure things out in startups is to just go and make things — consistently. Make small progress constantly. Talk to users, sell an idea, write code, design, share an idea, and seek out inspiration. Every big thing is made of many small pieces. Valuing the small, incremental progress matters.
How do you know if this is the right thing? You might not. One starting point is to follow your own excitement. That tends to be a good rule of thumb, especially when building for yourself. Another is to ask: will this matter in the future? If the answer is murky, maybe reconsider.
Even making a wrong turn allows you to learn and see things you otherwise wouldn’t have seen. Each day your heading gets more accurate.
Lastly, learn to block out the noise around that big vision. Yes, you have grand ambitions. Yes, there are expectations. There is little value in sitting with those today.
Just show up and make something happen. Compound that learning consistently, getting off the ground, and the bigger vision will realize itself.
Go 1-0 today.