Skip the beginning

You can get on or off at any stop. (Image by fsHH)

A colleague is struggling with what to call his new business.

Really, he doesn’t have a business yet. All he has is an idea.

I used to get stuck there, too. I used to fret about names and logos and office space. I worried about finding the perfect photo and headline for a website, the right software to manage the project. I didn’t want to mess up my thing by doing it wrong.

When I started The Little Middle School, I didn’t worry about that. I began by telling everyone I knew about my idea — like, the day I came up with it — to see if anyone wanted to be part of it. Then I had some meetings. Two months later, I put up a website.

Seven years later, I got a logo. I still haven’t put it on my website, though. Apparently, it isn’t critical to the process.

Unlike the projects I had been stuck on, my vision for The Little Middle School wasn’t precious and idealized. I hadn’t spent five years planning the perfect school. If nobody wanted to participate, neither did I. There was no point in doing a website for a thing no one was interested in. That’s why my first step was to find out who was in, Ocean’s Eleven style. And when we had the team together — parents, students, and staff — the next task was to build out the program itself to match the vision. It felt clear and straightforward.

That’s not to say that I don’t still struggle with getting projects off the ground. In fact, I’m awful at organizing projects unless I have a clear sense of what the finished product will look like. Without that, I don’t know how to put together the pieces and parts in a logical, systematic way.

It took me a long time, but I’ve finally learned that I can proceed with neither the vision nor the plan. All I have to do is find a place to begin, and it doesn’t have to be the beginning. In fact, it’s a lot easier if it’s not the beginning. I can just grab a few puzzle pieces out of the box and lay them on the table. As more of the picture becomes clear, I can come up with more of the steps needed.

The things we might believe should come first — the title, the tagline — could actually be last. Better to start with whatever we can see, from wherever we are. A book may open with page one, but that doesn’t have to be the first one we we write.

Liberated from this obligation to do things in the proper order with a clear vision, we can move forward. And it will always be forward, even if we’re not sure of our destination. We will refine our path as we go.

If you’re struggling to get started on a project that matters to you, I encourage you to skip the beginning. Jump in anywhere. Grab ahold of any corner you can find. It won’t be perfect, but you won’t mess it up, either. One day in the future, looking back at your work, you’ll see just how it should begin, and then add those finishing touches.