This is the second in a series applying Seth Godin’s rules of bootstrapping (see also here) to building a non-profit organisation.
Rule 2: Do it Now
Do it now. Not later, not next week, NOW. It’s better than later.
In the non-profit world:
Still do it now
Not much to add on this one. A bias to action is critical, and all things being equal, now is far better than later.
This blog is a great illustration – a month and a half ago I committed to shipping a blog post every day for 100 days. I would set the bar low if I had to, as long as I got something done. Every day. I’m at 60 posts as I write this, and it dawned on me that it would have taken me an entire year to get this far if I’d committed do a post a week.
In Lean Startup terms, doing it now is a key way of increasing your cycle speed. They might be small steps, but you get something done, you can review it, you can do it better next time as you build-measure-learn. See the next post for more on this.
I guess a caveat for the non-profit world is that you need to tread carefully if we’re dealing with vulnerable people.
But do it now doesn’t mean ‘be a bull in a China shop’ – it just means being commited to taking action, to doing the next thing now.
If you know what you need to do next, then it’s easy – do that, or at least do the smallest next part of that that you can.
If you don’t have clarity about what to do next, the next thing to do is to find out. Do some research. Find the name of three papers. Get hold of them. Make notes on one. Email the person who wrote it to thank them. Each one is a tiny push of the boat (or flywheel, if you’re a Jim Collins fan), giving you a little bit more momentum and making it easier tomorrow.
Rule 2 says “I will not go to bed tonight until I have done X.”
Rule 2 of bootstrapping the non-profit
Do it now.
Thanks Seth.