Take the plunge and don’t hold back to achieve your aims

Being an entrepreneur is a little like being a writer - until you start letting the ideas flow, whether good or bad, nothing will happen.

Authors, like entrepreneurs, agonise about making their work a big success. But "best-seller obsession" can take them down the wrong path.

For a long time, I had wanted to take a writing sabbatical. Then, in 2011, I took the plunge. While my book is still undergoing editing, the journey has already given me important insights into shaping new initiatives. Having worked all my professional life in start-up situations, I realise that every innovation is, quite simply, a story waiting to be told. To get that story right, entrepreneurs can take a page out of the writer’s playbook.

When I started writing my book, I would spend hours idly looking outside the window of my apartment towards the playground below. I didn’t know where to start. I had writer’s block.

As days piled up, the euphoria of my sabbatical was turning into anxiety.

Then one night, unable to sleep, maybe because my mind was so full, I threw caution to the wind and just wrote whatever came to my mind. There was no stopping me. I realised I must have breached a really big barrage because now the story just gushed out. I think that barrage was me. When I got out of the way, the story flowed unfettered.

The more I wrote, the more it cleared the way and the more it cleared the way, the more I wanted to write. I would write until late at night and early in the morning. According to my wife, my bearded, haggard form revealed a feverish passion that she hadn’t seen since college.

As the book neared completion, however, the anxiety returned.

“Is anything wrong?” my wife asked after a few days had passed and the situation hadn’t improved.

“I guess, I am just anxious for this book to be a best-seller,” I said.

She smiled. “Can’t the book be the reward itself?” she suggested.

“It can, but …”

“Tell me something. How many pages is your book?” she asked, trying a different approach.

“About 300 pages, why?” I inquired.

“… and how many pages to the end once the friends reach the destination?”

“About 15.”

“So, 285 pages for the road trip and 15 for the destination.”

“Yes. So?”

“Can’t you see it is the journey that really matters?” she asked.

Working on an idea can be overwhelming. There are no rules, no redlines, no boundaries. Just infinite choices paralysing us much like Buridan’s ass. To first-time authors, experienced writers prescribe a simple remedy for overcoming writer’s block: writing.

The fog does clear but only if we move forward. Like the game of 20 questions in reverse, moving forward forces us to make “real” choices that help us recognise our goals.

That is because the road to innovation is not a straight arrow. It is a maze of narrow winding alleys. Chances are, they may lead you to an unexpected destination – but it could be a vastly better one.

As one of the most prolific innovators of our times, Steve Jobs, pointed out: “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward”.

The lesson is simple: don’t worry about connecting the dots even before you start. As Henry Ford said: “Life is not a battle that you will lose with one wrong step”. Life is an opportunity.

Publishing editors frequently advise first-time authors: “If you keep fussing about how the book is going to come out, you will never find your voice”.

To find that unique voice, we must allow our idea to evolve unfettered by our expectations.

As long as our efforts are oriented to meaningful aims (a product that serves people in new ways), we feel fulfilled. It is only when they become anchored to consequences (money, fame etc) that we feel pulled in different directions.

“Writer’s block” and “best-seller obsession” not only impair our ability to innovate, they make our journey a burden we must endure rather than an adventure we can enjoy.

If we are prepared to go all the way, we might find ourselves at a destination that makes even more sense. Miracles do happen, but only if we make a start and don’t get caught up with the happy ending.

Venugopal Gupta is the founder of The Business Parables. You can follow him on Twitter @venugopal_gupta. The article is courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge.

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