#2) Fuck it, let´s launch

Beginning the case for gut instinct

I have often made dramatic changes in my life without thinking it through.

I was on track to earn a Ph.D. in American History at the University of Virginia and then the dotcom revolution came along and I stopped at my Master´s degree and moved to NY with $15k in savings (which disappeared in a few months to an apartment agent fee and the demands of a landlord). I was living in New York for a few years and then I was invited to move to London at the behest of an investor, and, a week later I had sold my things and moved to London. Just like that. Literally a week later.

I was living in London for a few years and then suddenly I sold my things and moved to Dublin at the behest of a friend. Then after a few years again I moved. This time to Norway because, well, Norway seemed like a nice place to explore. What the hell.

I have had no real plan all along. No grand career arch.

Professionally, I get antsy with too much analysis, research and “validation” processes. I love to make decisions. I love to take action. I do not like to debate and discuss issues through many meetings and many months of careful consideration.

And I tend to piss off people who do indeed like to take time (lots and lots of time) to “think it through.”

I´m not a practitioner of thinking it through. I´m the embodiment of impulse and instinct.

I feel like in business settings - or at least, the business settings I often find myself in, research, analysis, deliberation, these are the things that get valued as best business practices. Impulse, instinct? Those are unprofessional traits by comparison. Raw, emotional, as opposed to processed and logical. I mean how on earth can gut instinct hold a candle of professional to a 10 page white paper on the same topic?

My work often involves the early stage of a business life cycle, often the absolute earliest, from idea to product to first revenue. Rarely do I work with companies earning more than €10m euros in revenue per year. That would be where my work should end, actually.

And what frustrates me is that often I just don´t think there´s enough time to “think things through” or “do it right” (whatever that even means but it´s a phrase I hear used time and time again).

I think the best way to test is to just launch it out there live and in the marketplace for all the world to see. And then learn.

I am going to be speaking in the coming months to risk takers in a series of Bold Moves pieces to discover just how much analysis vs instinct drove their initial risk taking. Did they leap before looking? Did they give it much thought before launching their new idea or business or product? Did they conduct many user group testings or formal market research or did they just discuss it with friends over a series of beers over a series of evenings and then say Fuck It, Let´s Do This Thing.

This is NOT to knock research. Or market analsyis. Or beta tests. Or fancy keynote slides with lots of graphs and arrows and concentric circles.

I just think they get too much credit vis a vis gut instinct and fuck it let´s launch thinking.

I want to highlight and build the case for impulse and pure risk taking (“actually, this makes no sense”) as being equally legitimate professional methods to use in building something new and daring. I´m talking about being an entrepreneur.