Anything You Want

Start now. No funding needed.

Watch out when anyone (including you) says he wants to do something big, but

can't until he raises money.

It usual y means the person is more in love with the idea of being big big big

than with actual y doing something useful. For an idea to get big big big, it has

to be useful. And being useful doesn't need funding.

If you want to be useful, you can always start now, with only 1 percent of what

you have in your grand vision. It'l be a humble prototype version of your grand

vision, but you'l be in the game. You'l be ahead of the rest, because you actual y

started,  while  others  are  waiting  for  the  finish  line  to  magical  y  appear  at  the

starting line.

For  example,  let's  say  you  have  a  vision  of  making  an  international  chain  of

enlightened  modern  schools.  You  picture  it  as  a  huge,  world-changing

organization,  with  hundreds  of  employees,  dozens  of  offices,  and  expensive

technology.  But  instead  of  waiting  for  that,  you  start  by  teaching  somebody

something this week. Find someone who wil pay to learn something, meet him

anywhere, and begin. It wil be nothing but you, a student, and a notebook, but

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you'l be in business, and you can grow it from there.

If you want to make a movie recommendation service, start by tel ing friends to

cal you for movie recommendations. When you find a movie your friends like,

they  buy  you  a  drink.  Keep  track  of  what  you  recommended  and  how  your

friends liked it, and improve from there.

Want to start a new airline? Next time you're at the airport when a flight is cancel

ed,  offer  to  everyone  at  the  gate  that  you'l  lease  a  smal  plane  to  fly  to  their

destination  if  they  wil  split  the  costs.  (This  is  how  Richard  Branson  started

Virgin  Airlines.)  Starting  smal  puts  100  percent  of  your  energy  on  actual  y

solving real problems for real people. It gives you a stronger foundation to grow

from. It eliminates the friction of big infrastructure and gets right to the point.

And it wil let you change your plan in an instant, as you're working closely with

those first customers tel ing you what they real y need.

Since I had already built a website for my own CD, the first version of CD Baby

took me only a few days to make, and it did almost nothing. It was a list of a few

CDs, each with a BUY NOW button. Clicking that would put the CD in your

cart and ask for your info. When you entered your info, the site would email it to

me.

That's it. For the first year, that's al the site did, and that's al it needed to become

profitable.

I spent only $500 to start CD Baby. The first month, I earned back $300. But the

second month I made $700, and it's been profitable every month since.

So no, your idea doesn't need funding to start. (You also don't need an MBA, a

particular big client, a certain person's endorsement, a lucky break, or any other

common excuse not to start.)