Jackie Cooper - Entrepreneurship Empowerer

I used to have one crippling addiction: Planning. My brain loved the cheap dopamine of gathering books to read, tasks to complete, and videos to watch. But when it came to taking action, the euphoric rush faded. What ended my addiction? This story of two men learning to fish -- The first fisherman was a planner. He heads straight to the marina to buy the best fishing boat money can buy. Then, he specs out an expensive, custom, carbon-fiber fishing rod. And from there, he spends hundreds of hours reading up and watching videos on everything there is to know about fishing. • Casting angles • Weather patterns • Baiting techniques You name it, he's bought the book on it. And of course, he's watching the fishing channel every night for hours, learning from the best of the best. A few months later—after months of diligent preparation—he *finally* feels ready to fish. So the next day, he heads out on the lake in his new boat with his fancy rod and wealth of fishing "experience" built up over the last few months. But six hours in, nothing. Not even a nibble. He fiddled with his tangled rod which was much more difficult to cast than it looked on TV. Still nothing. He moved to a spot upstream, just like his favorite guru would suggest. Still nothing. So—what happened? Turns out, the second fisherman had already sucked the lake dry. On day one, the second fisherman grabbed a shitty rod, sliced up a hot dog, and went to the lake. The first day, nothing. So he moved to a new spot. Second day, nothing. So then he moved again. And on the third day? His first nibble. From there it was time to iterate. And every day after, he honed his technique. He found a baiting technique that worked a bit better. Or a new lake with a few more fish. And after three weeks of iteration, he found the winning combination. Before long, he was hauling in hundreds of fish every day. To keep up with his daily haul, he hired a small team to help him. And from there, he opened a restaurant with fat margins to sell his fresh fish. And after that, he opened a fishing school to teach others his craft. He did all of this while the first fisherman sat around gathering gear. Sure, the first fisherman felt productive during those months of preparation, right? He was "learning" after all, right? But there was one difference: feedback. Every day the second fisherman had an idea of something that might work better. And he went right to the market to validate his assumption. If it worked, his strategy improved. And if it failed, he learned something new. The moral of this story? Get to action as quickly as possible. When you find yourself gathering gear, stop. Instead, grab a shitty rod and start fishing.