Rome wasn't built in a day, nor was Google, Microsoft or the planet Earth. Big projects take huge investments and energy sustained over a long time period. But as a small scale entrepreneur or volunteer project leader we can quickly be overwhelmed by a great task. This message is a reminder that a small effort early on can lead to a huge difference in where your organization ends up a few years from now.
When you continually compare your accomplishments to the end UBER goal it's likely you'll be frustrated. The urge to quit due to a lack of perceived forward progress is the most dangerous threat to a pre-company startup. If the goal appears impratical or unachievable our time resource alarm goes off warning us to reconsider the effort. I've mentioned this before, and it bears repeating, the goal is not nearly as important as how you get there. Break down that huge hurdle into smaller bite sized accomplishments so you can get immediate feedback (both positive and negative). The goal your startup first zeroed in on may shift as your knowledge of the technology, consumer and business players improves (good ole conditional probability + iterative solutions).
Smaller milestones means faster navigation and course correction of your venture in the right direction. A lack of feedback and interaction (isolation) is the worst case for a new business. While project development takes effort and time (and an optimal workspace), there's no harm in updating the weekly plans or even the daily schedules on a regular basis. The point is not to detract from the confidence of development teams in the value of their effort, but to ensure they are aware of how their brilliant inventions fit into a bigger picture.
With this thinking, today's evening project goal for myself is to read up on user profile databases and how best to build a solid foundation for rapid scaling, and speed.
This post is for myself, Vladimir Vukicevic, Ryan Leland, Brian Hendrickson, and Jason Cronkhite.