How to Avoid being Trapped by Your Ambition
Marketing and small business are both things that tend to attract very ambitions people. In order to launch and run a small business, you almost have to be a dreamer and visionary.
The only problem is, sometimes these dreams and ambitions can get in the way. Often, they even stop people dead in their tracks. This is what I call the “ambition trap.”
What is the ambition trap?
Think back to the last time you were starting something new: launching a campaign, working on a new product, a new website, whatever it might have been.
You probably started by thinking about the best way to go about doing it.
Then, when you actually sat down to start the work, you probably had another idea (I bet it was a good one, too).
Anyhow, back to work for a bit… Then BAM, another idea pops up. And another. And another.
Pretty soon, there was an entire vision of what you wanted to do. You had all of the different aspects thought out, linked together, and formed into a beautiful grandiose plan. The only problem was, you needed 10 million dollars in venture capital and a team of experts to actually accomplish it.
At least, that’s how it usually plays out in my head.
These spontaneous plans and ideas aren’t bad by themselves (quite good actually), but they become a problem when they pull you so far into the vision that you don’t get any work done. And whether because of innate ambition, perfectionism, or something else entirely, small business owners seem to be very susceptible to this.
Save the dreams, but don’t get stuck in them
Dreams, visions, plans, and goals are all great things to have. They’re also practically a requirement for anyone starting a business. The trick is to use your future plans when they’re beneficial, and set them aside when they hold up your immediate work.
One of the best ways to do this is to store your ideas in a special folder or file for the things that aren’t practical and realistic at this very moment.
I’m a firm believer that anyone can do anything; so make sure you save even the most grandiose ideas. But in the mean time, make sure to put them aside if they aren’t immediately realistic.
File your future ideas, and you’ll enjoy much greater productivity in the present.
Sincerely,
- The biggest dreamer I know
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Reader Comments
It’s not just grandiose ideas that cause this sort of problem. It is very easy to not actually DO anything because you keep having ideas about what to do. Sometimes it’s just best to do SOMETHING and get the ball rolling—- you can always try something else later.
thank god someone else has the same problem! I am in a constant state of having new ideas for products, websites, businesses, books, movies etc - not saying that I have the expertise, time or funds to complete them all - and I want to do them all now or at least keep the dream alive that I can achieve them all.. I get frustrated because I know that I already have established businesses to focus my energies on but I cant seem to quiet my mind long enough to do so.
Anthony - Exactly right. A very lot of the time “thinking about what to do” is what is preventing you from actually “doing.” Now, there are plenty of times when thinking comes in handy, there are just a lot of times when it doesn’t. Especially for the small business owner who needs not only to plan but to actually follow through as well.
Nathan - You certainly aren’t alone : )
I have the same problem as well, like Nathan. I have been in a big company where I can just throw my ideas to people around me and expect them to execute, so it has been a bit of adjustment recently to try a startup world.
And I do exactly what you suggest, keep the logs of new ideas. What happens is after a few weeks if I review the list of new ideas I built, I realize not all of them are that good. In many cases, I find 60% of them have flaws and not executable. So by keeping logs, I can actually be really objective, and select what is really good.
Asako - That’s a really good point about periodically reviewing idea logs. I personally keep long term files and shorter term files. The short ones I look over on a weekly basis, whereas some of the long term files I only look over every year or so (otherwise they’d tempt me to do too many things).
If I remember correctly, the book Getting Things Done by David Allen suggests a system somewhat like this for more regular tasks. This is just a version for us too-many-ideas people.
- Mason
I’m in the process of learning how to work on one thing at a time. What has really helped is my composition notebook that has all of the ideas I come up in the process of working on my current project. I’d be lost without my “million dollar ideas” notebook.
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