Getting Started

Getting started. 

I've recently come across two different people who had the same advice for getting started.  Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, co-founder of the Vera Bradley line lives by the mantra of Ready, Fire, Aim. Yes, you read that correctly, as she believes that by firing early you don't have time to talk yourself out of an idea.

Marie Forleo of Marie TV, says the best way to accomplish something is to, "Start before you are ready," knowing full well that you will make mistakes or even change your mind. She calls this being a beginner. 

Sometimes we are hesitant to start something because we feel like we don't know enough, when that actually may just be a convenient excuse not to begin. 

Ideas can come and go, and chances are if you do not act upon them somebody else will. I can remember some ideas that I had early on in my teaching career that later on down the road were developed and published by someone else. Someone who wasn't afraid to get started. 

Sometimes we think that maybe our ideas aren't original enough, and because of that don't merit being developed. Author Elizabeth Gilbert, likes to point out that it's pretty much a given that it's already been done, "But it has not yet been done by you." That's what makes the difference. 

Your unique twist on something might be all that idea needs to become successful, and successful doesn't mean it has to apply to the entire world. Sometimes it's only those immediately around you that will reap the benefits, and that's okay. 

Baekgaard is the first to admit that if she and her friend had given it too much thought they would never had started Vera Bradley. What did they know about the luggage industry? What they did know was that there was an awful lot of boring luggage making its way through the airport, and they wanted to add a little color to women's lives. I'd say they did a pretty good job.