Has what you started off with gone in a completely different direction? Is that okay?

[Fab89]

Hi,

I have some experience with programming and I think it's my best skill at the moment to offer with a business. My idea is to start helping people with websites or making an application that could help them. I'm working in my current job and then quit as soon as I feel a little traction to put more time into it.

There's no planned out goal at the moment but what I've read on this forum and the books seems to be telling me to just do anything and figure it out along the way.

Has anyone here started off doing one thing and it's ended up as something completely different? I was just going to ride the waves of whatever comes my way and just keep putting effort into where I end up.

Not sure if there's anything wrong with this. Should I be a little more focused in knowing exactly what I should be doing? I would like to hear of your experiences.

Cheers,

Fab

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Mine just went a completely different direction.
Here are some reasons why:

1) I wasn't clear about my goals and what I really want.
2) The thing I was doing won't scale to the level I'm aiming for.
3) I have commitment issues that I need to overcome.

Getting more focused feels like it is correcting these issues. It started with getting clear about what I actually want and how big I want to go. Once I had that figured out, it became clear the path I was taking to get there simply wasn't enough. It won't get the job done.

So I had to make adjustments and change what I am doing. Now that I'm focused on what I'm trying to accomplish, and figured out a path that has a chance to get me there, the only thing left to do is swing with everything I've got and see if I hit a home run.

If you take action without a sense of direction, you might not end up where you want to go. So it makes sense to start by figuring out where you want to end up so you can take a reasonable path to get there.

But just FYI, I'm not there yet.

 

[Solrac]

Hi,

I have some experience with programming and I think it's my best skill at the moment to offer with a business. My idea is to start helping people with websites or making an application that could help them. I'm working in my current job and then quit as soon as I feel a little traction to put more time into it.

There's no planned out goal at the moment but what I've read on this forum and the books seems to be telling me to just do anything and figure it out along the way.

Has anyone here started off doing one thing and it's ended up as something completely different? I was just going to ride the waves of whatever comes my way and just keep putting effort into where I end up.

Not sure if there's anything wrong with this. Should I be a little more focused in knowing exactly what I should be doing? I would like to hear of your experiences.

Cheers,

Fab

Ahhh yes, the famous "pivot".

There have been plenty of companies that ended up doing something that's totally different than what they initially set out to do. Notably a few come to mind: Twitter, Starbucks, Paypal, YouTube.

One could argue that maybe there wasn't a strong enough need, or some maybe another opportunity showed up or made itself clear. But lot's of people start off doing something & notice something else within reason and switch to focus on that. People don't realize certain things until they get in the game.

What you DONT want is to be that person that is constantly "pivoting". This is a lack of discipline & probably just action faking.

I'd also argue that "going with the flow" isn't a bad strategy. It's better than NO strategy that's for sure. And you have no idea where you might end up. Just make sure you have feedback loops to monitor your progress.