Success isn't random.
Creating a successful project is no different.
A business (whether an individual writing novels, a corporation selling insurance, or a nonprofit doing charitable work) is nothing more than a series of projects.
A successful business, therefore, is nothing more than a series of successful projects.
Look at any successful company – Coke, Nike, Apple, Kickstarter, Amazon, Chic-fil-A, Lululemon, Rogue Brewery – do you think their success is simply luck?
Or is it more likely that these companies have a system for instigating successful projects?
Creating a successful project is not about luck or coincidence (although either may help or hurt your project).
On the contrary, there are historically proven steps you can take in order to be successful.
*note: Every single one of the companies I listed above follows some form of this model for upper and lower level management when taking on any new project or product launch.
The following are 3 proven steps to guarantee your success in any project you're about to instigate:
What’s the last goal you set? Did you reach it? If not, where is that goal right now? Above your computer? In your wallet? Taped to the visor in your car?
A goal is only as good as your focus.
There are great tips out there for creating compelling, powerful goals (the SMART method is excellent: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound), but none of it matters if you don’t review your goal daily…
And then take action daily to achieve the goal.
Goals give purpose and direction to our actions, but we need to review and maintain the goal daily to make sure we don’t get sidetracked.
Tip: Set a goal, write it down, and review it every day. It seems so painfully obvious it almost hurts to write – but how often do we put this common sense to practice?
Another one that seems obvious, but how often do we actually commit AND follow through with our projects?
There are ways to measure the success and failure rate of start-ups There are ways to determine the revenue generated from a specific advertising campaign. There are ways to identify the conversion rate of your product's splash page.
There is no way to measure all the projects that failed before they started.
There’s no way to determine the success or failure of a project if we never make it through the brainstorming and thrashing stage.
If our great idea stays an idea, it fails.
If we set a goal but never follow through, we fail.
Tip: Once you've identified your goal, commit your time, energy and focus toward realizing it. Don’t stop until it’s finished. Follow through.
This is what separates successful companies from failed companies.
The pattern of all great companies (and all great instigators) is to create, ship, measure, refine, and ship again.
The beauty of this method: it plans for future failure.
When Pepsi released Crystal Pepsi in 1993, they pushed the marketing and advertising campaign hard. And, for a short (very short) period of time, it was successful.
Until it wasn’t.
Pepsi didn’t push the failing product; they pulled it from the market. They tweaked the formula and released a citrus variation called Crystal from Pepsi, which you probably never heard of, because that failed too. They pulled it from the market.
Pepsi didn’t try to release a new version; the clear-Pepsi thing simply wasn’t working. So Pepsi took the measured results and used them for future product and marketing campaigns (Sierra Mist).
Pepsi can get away with more large scale product failures than we can, but we can still mimic the fundamental pattern of how they create and introduce new products to market (a system that has more wins than losses).
Eventually, one of these products will be successful. That’s the nature of measuring, refining, and shipping; you will eventually create something successful (i.e. something people want and will pay money for).
It’s not guess work; the creation of a successful product is very much a scientific process of measuring results and modifying inputs.
Tip: As long as we learn from our mistakes and use that information to shape future projects and products, we will inevitably create a successful offering. Always measure, always refine, always ship.
The success of a project has nothing to do with luck.
Serendipity and providence can help us, sure, but if we rely on either to propel us toward success, we’re destined to fail.
Serendipity and providence only help those who don’t seek them.
And while we don’t have control over our lucky breaks, we do have control over something more powerful: our actions.
"Life is pretty simple: you do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works." - Leonardo da Vinci
After a long day (or a long week of 14 hour days) it’s normal to want to unwind, call it early, and go to sleep.
I wanted to (I mean, I REALLY wanted to), but instead I made the conscious (and uncomfortable) decision to stay up just a bit later to write another post.
As easy as it could have been to call it early, I wanted to end the day with a victory.
That's the commitment I've made to myself – to write one blog post (or develop one of my other projects) every night.
It's small. One post doesn't mean anything by itself. And because it’s so simple, I could easily convince myself to skip tonight and catch up later.
But I don't, because I know this simple truth:
Actions repeated consistently over time create habits…
And habits create momentum…
And when that momentum's going, I want it to be in the right direction.
If I don't write tonight, nothing happens. If I don’t write tomorrow, same thing, nothing happens. There is no dramatic, immediate effect to doing nothing.
And in a year from now, I’ll reap exactly what I sowed (you guessed it – nothing). Resistance will have won.
But if I do write tonight, and tomorrow, and every day for the next year, I'll have over 300 pages of content. That's a book.
If I keep this up for a few years, I'll have thousands of pages of content (and tons of experience). You can’t create that in a day (not with all the coffee in the world).
The point is this: you can't complete the project you're working on by waiting until tomorrow. And don't try to fool yourself into thinking you'll catch up this weekend (you won't).
But you CAN create an empire in 30 minutes - just 30 minutes every day.
All it takes is action right now. Don't worry about tomorrow - it doesn't exist, not to you, not when you’re staring your project in the face.
Start creating - immediately. Don't go to sleep until you've added another stone to the castle.
I added another stone.
Did you?
