I know a lot of people who are writing a book - friends, people I’ve worked with, people I meet at dinners. Some have been “writing” it for five or infinite years. Sometimes they know the title, they can tell you what it’s about, sometimes in a lot of detail. There is just no book.
The app people are the opposite. They won’t tell you anything. The idea is brilliant, and it’s a secret because someone might steal it. The funny part is that even if they build it one day, and most won’t, nobody will know about it anyway. They never told anyone :)
Same with the business they’ll start next year. The language they’ll start learning in January. Gym they’ll go from this weekend, every weekend.
I’m not judging, I was exactly the same with some things, and I still catch myself doing it with others.
My book
For years I had something to say about every business cliché people love to repeat and had the whole book in my head.
At some point I got tired of hearing myself and just wrote it.
People sometimes ask if I like it now - no, of course not. I would change a lot, whole chapters. If they ask if I regret writing it, also no, not even a little.
I know people who really liked it. I also know people who think it’s a waste of paper and the most stupid book they ever tried to read or heard. OK, that’s fine.
And I think this is the part that matters. That second reaction is exactly what stops most people. What if someone says it’s bad? What if someone laughs? Well, someone did and nothing happened. I’m still here, the book is still there, and I’ll probably write another one when I decide to.
The version in my head never had that problem. Nobody could call it stupid, but nobody could like it either.
“Not now”
Most people never say “I’m not going to do this” - they say “not now.”
Not now, because I am so busy. Not now, because I want to do it properly. Not now, because I need to learn a bit more first. Each one sounds reasonable. Put ten years of them together and it’s the same as saying no.
I don’t think anybody ever feels ready. You start, and you figure out while doing it.
And “properly” is a trap. The first version of anything is not going to be good. My book isn’t. The first versions of our products weren’t either. That’s normal. You can fix something that exists, and not something that’s still in your head.
Most of it is much smaller
A book or an app is a big example. Most of the things we don’t do are tiny, and they get lost the same way.
Call the plumber about the leak under the sink. Buy the thing for the kid’s school project. Buy the birthday gift days before the birthday, not the last minute or just finish with gift card.
Renew the passport before the trip, but not the week before. Cancel the subscription you stopped using in spring. Return the package that has been sitting by the door for a month. This list is endless.
Nobody decides not to do these. You think about them at the wrong moment, in the car or in the bathroom, and then they’re gone. Next time you remember, it’s already late.
The small stuff and the big stuff are more connected than they used to. Someone who can’t get the plumber called this week is probably not writing a book or building an app either, it’s usually not laziness, everything just stays in the head, and the head is a bad place to keep things.
Notes, or Notion are boring, so we actually built Valedo for ourselves first, to make this easier and a little more fun. My wife and I share our grocery list. I keep kids wish lists, stuff for trips, things I need to do. It’s simple, completely free, and we use it ourselves every day.
The people who do
The people I know who actually get things done are not special. Most of them are busy and tired like everyone else, and not more talented. They just don’t wait for the right moment, and they don’t keep everything in their head.
They also talk less about it. You usually find out after.
Big or small, it’s the same thing. The book, the app, the plumber, the milk. You either do it, or you keep talking about it.