George Kao argues that many people delay launching businesses or projects because they believe they need to do more (update a website, gather more case studies, get more training) before they are "ready." He calls this a self-perpetuating pattern that prevents real learning and growth. Using examples (website updates, publishing a first-draft book, endless certification), he encourages taking small, concrete steps and launching a minimal version now to learn from the market. He frames forward action as preferable to waiting for perfect readiness and invites viewers to comment for personalized encouragement.
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There's a pattern of thought that I've noticed holds back a lot of people who want to grow their business or to make any progress on a significant project in their life. And the thought goes like, once I do more of X, I'll feel more ready to do Y. Okay, so that is a very dangerous thought form because it's actually the truth of it. It's a never ending delay of what you actually need to experience in order to grow and make progress. So for example, a client might tell me, oh, but George, I need to update my website before I feel ready to launch the product. And I look at the person's website, it's like, you know, the website's fine. You have your own perfectionistic ideas of it. I think it's fine. Most of your potential customers aren't going to look at every page on your site. They'll actually look at the landing page and the product page, maybe the about page. Let's just update those, right? Or somebody else might say, well, George, I've got to. Well, let me talk about my own experience. Recently I had this thought that, oh, I need to get, you know, 25 more case studies before I really should publish my book. Oh, I need to get far better editing before I should publish my book or whatever it may be. And I had been delaying on publishing my book for a long time. And so I said, you know what, to heck with it, I'm just going to go ahead and publish the first version of the book. And I went and did that. And guess what? The vast majority of the people who've read the book said they benefited from it. I did of course, get a couple of comments privately say, hey, George, you really should have edited the book better. And that's fine because I'm gonna make another version of the book in the future and I will edit it better. But again, the vast majority of the feedback has been extraordinary positive. So another example is, a very common example, is I just need to get more training before I'm ready to offer my services more widely. And I will tell you, I can't even tell you how many clients I've worked with and how many audience members I've seen who have gotten certification after certification after certification and they still don't feel completely clear about their message and ready to share it out there. And I always like to say the clarity of your message and the effectiveness of your services created and developed in partnership with the market, in partnership with actually working with other people. And guess what, you know, taking a risk and sharing Your services with other people. Ultimately, eventually, you will have to take the risk. And I will tell you, the more you delay, the more you think you need another training, another class, another xyz. You actually make it harder and harder on yourself. So I'm hoping that with this video I can help you break the pattern and realize that, wait, I cannot delay anymore. And I just need to take a step in the right direction by doing a small launch. You don't have to do anything big. That's one of the illusions is that you have to go big, right? No, you start small. Like me. I published the first version of my book knowing I have more future versions ahead of me. So just do the next version. Break the pattern of delay. You no longer have to do whatever it is you think you need before you're ready, because you'll never be be more ready than you are now. In fact, you'll feel less and less ready over time because the more you learn, the more you realize you have more to learn. You see, that's the problem. So just go. That's why, in fact, what's interesting is that a lot of ignorant, you might say ignorant people or people who haven't had a lot of education, they tend to just move forward almost blindly. But as a result of moving forward, they learn from experience and they actually do what is needed to move forward and make progress. And so I would call myself one of those ignorant people. I don't read as much as some of my peers do, but I just keep moving forward. I learn from experience, so that's what I want to encourage you to do. Feel free to comment below this video if you really feel like. George, I just need to do one more thing before I'm ready to do that. Comment below and maybe I can help you break the pattern with some encouragement and some insight for you. I hope this is helpful.
