Let’s face it. You probably have a really big idea.
You want to change the world in a big way.
But how do you even begin to accomplish such big feats?
My proposal to you is to start small.
Here’s the bottom line. When you have a huge idea, it can feel tremendously overwhelming.
You don’t know where to start. When you don’t know where to start, you don’t create any momentum. When you don’t create any momentum, you’re standing still.
It can feel so daunting when the rest of the world seems like they’ve got it figured out. It feels like the world is passing you by and you don’t know what to do.
It can be frustrating.
Here’s the advantage I want to share with you.
When you’re trying to start something big, there’s actually an advantage to starting small.
Here are two examples:
Think about Facebook.
Facebook started really small. First, it was just an idea that Zuckerberg and a few of his friends put together. When they first released it, Facebook was only available for Harvard students.
Then did they go to the world? No!
They released it to institutions in the Boston area. Then they released it to Ivy League schools. Then they finally opened it up to everyone else.
But it first started as a tiny idea for Harvard.
When we look at Facebook and the behemoth it’s become, realize that it only began as a little project for Harvard students.
Think about Gary Vaynerchuk.
When he was young, Gary loved trading baseball cards.
Then he got into his family’s wine business. It was similar because he saw that people collected wine like they did trading cards. There was value there.
He studied wine and became obsessed.
He helped grow his family business and then he started small in terms of marketing and growing his business.
He started his online show. That picked up a ton of momentum. That was the one thing that he focused on.
From there, he leveraged that momentum to start VaynerMedia. He’s now got a sports agency and so much more, but it all started small.
So what’s the takeaway for us?
There’s an advantage to starting small.
Reason number one to start small is that it’s easier.
When you start small, it’s easier to think about what you need to do to begin a project.
When you start big, that can feel daunting. It can feel overwhelming. You don’t know where to begin. You don’t know what to do.
Starting small is easier to break down. It’s easier to see what your next steps are.
Reason number two to start small is that it allows you to create momentum.
Momentum is your friend. People are drawn to momentum.
For example, I have big ambitions to help entrepreneurs all over the world. That’s the big idea.
But when I broke it down, I realized I could build the most momentum with the one thing I am really good at which is helping people craft or clarify their one big idea and then write a book that lays the foundation for their branded platform.
That’s where I have the most experience. For years and years, I’ve been helping hundreds of people with this.
That’s why I’ve started the upcoming Entrepreneur Book Accelerator program.
Instead of trying to help ALL entrepreneurs, first I start with helping this smaller market I know I can dominate and really serve.
That creates a ton of momentum. That creates a lot of opportunity.
Reason number three to start small is that momentum creates opportunity.
Momentum creates opportunity that you can’t even see at the present moment.
When you have momentum on your side, you start attracting all kinds of new opportunities.
Instead of trying to accomplish the big idea right out of the gates (and I am all for big ideas), I propose that you break it down.
What are the steps leading up to that big idea that you can focus on and dominate right now?
The key here is PATIENCE!
If we’re patient in the beginning, the momentum is actually going to make it easier for us to speed up the success that we want in our lives.
When we try to do the big idea first, it’s slow. It’s heavy. It’s like pushing a boulder up a hill.
What happens is that we get frustrated. We give up. We don’t do anything. We stand still.
And when we stand still, it feels like the rest of the world is passing us by.
If you start small, it’s easy to create momentum. With momentum comes opportunity.
Think back to Mark Zuckerberg. Think back to Gary Vaynerchuk.
These are all good examples of people and companies starting small and then using their momentum to create new opportunity.
Your turn: What is your big idea? And what is the first small step you can take?