Do the Damned Thing!

A great friend of mine, Chuck Beattie, once said something that has since stuck with me, "Just do the damned thing!" At the time he was working with me as a software developer and trying with immense patience to teach me to play guitar. I can't even remember the context but I certainly remember the message and it applies to so many situations.

I've been talking to several entrepreneurs lately and one thing I've noticed that hinders more than a few of them is getting stuck in the big picture planning and failing to perfect the core product.  There is no need to hire a team, build out infrastructure or look for investors until you have a handle on what it is you're actually building.

I've been guilty of the same thing over the years; planning a software project of such scope with so many moving parts that it took an immense effort, not only to code, but to debug and launch the product. A grand vision is fine, but one must learn to break it down into component parts.

I'm sure most of us have thought of a really great idea for a product, book, article, application, system of government, rocket fuel, inter-dimensional portal...etc. Sometimes we might see our idea years later in production made by someone who had the same idea and did something about it.

A couple of friends of mine, Shane Remington and Kendall Weaver, know how to take that next step and what they created with Peppermint OS benefits a huge number of people. These guys work other jobs, have families and social lives. They aren't the stereotypical hide in a cave socially awkward entrepreneurs. They just did the damn thing!

Imagine it like this, what if Da Vinci had spent all of his time talking about and building a frame for the Mona Lisa?

The Long and Winding Road

We are here. Right here, right now, irrevocably traveling through the present. The road we've walked to get here was necessary only in that it got us to this fleeting destination. Technically, now is ever changing, instant by instant, quantum tick after quantum tick, sliding from now to then, but the now I reference is not so finitely defined as that.

The picture I've included is of my very dear friend, Dr. Blues or, as I first new him, Chuck Beattie. He and I traveled wildy different roads to get to this point in time, but either would kill for the other. That is the nature of time...of human existence.

Chuck is a blues man in the truest since. His life, all of his experience, his laughter and his pain, flow freely from him when he performs. Chuck and I first collaborated, not on music, but on technology. Dr. Beattie, you see, is also a programmer, a technology junkie and a true geek in the most flattering since of the word. There is where we first found common ground.

The point I'm meandering around to is that we never know how today will fit into the bigger puzzle that we're working on but it's important to realize that today and everyday that follows has the potential to change our lives. For that reason, I feel like we should pay attention and give each moment the respect it deserves. Otherwise we might just miss out on something grand!