Feras Alhlou argues that founders should stop over-planning and launch quickly instead. He borrows "successive approximation" from therapy: draw a flexible plan, ship it, then solve problems as they come. Over-planning kills as many startups as no plan does.
Successive approximation. This principle comes directly from cognitive behavioral therapy, and it is totally applicable to business. It's about not feeling that you have to do everything at the same time, or that you have to plan the whole trajectory of a project before you take the first step. Now, I'm not in any way saying that you don't need a business plan for your business. You do. But I've observed that for new businesses, overplanning is as much of a problem as underplanning. Draw a reasonable plan, start, and figure things out as you encounter challenges. That's really how most successful businesses start and continue to grow.
