Why Starting Something Is Harder Than Finishing It: Startup 101

One of my favourite interview questions is: Do you like starting something or finishing things?

Almost 80% people like to start things. Shouldn’t come as a surprise though.

Finishing is much harder.

Finishing that project requires a lot more than starting something.

Driving a conclusion requires a lot more than initiating the discussion meeting. Making the product work requires a lot more than starting to code the product. Building an organisation where people love to come to work requires a lot more than hiring people.

Starting something such as projects is what people do a lot more than completing them.

But, thoughts work very differently.

Thinking never truly finishes. And, hence, it’s the beginning that’s the hardest. Taking the first step to imagine, to listen, to comprehend, to think – is super super hard.

Once you have imagined or reimagined a thought – converting it into action is a unique path you will define, sooner than later (repeat – starting a task is easier than finishing it) – starting something as a thought.

The key then is – to start a thought.

I have been given some very valuable, gracious feedback on how this blog is a thought starter.

They think it’s because I am experienced and am living through these emotions before most. I know it’s a thought starter because I keep it simple.

The goal is NOT to define the path, not to be a self help book, but to plant thoughts and ideas. To just write in simple language what I thought of a certain situation in my life.

No fancy words, no complex models, no fancy theorems, no patents filed!

I am no intellectual. And I don’t pretend to be one.

But when I read super insightful material written in a manner that only a few people can comprehend, I wish even the intellectuals didn’t think of themselves as one.

Ironically, the need to maintain our intellectual status ends up alienating the same people we wish to influence.

[This post by Ankur Warikoo first appeared on LinkedIn and has been reproduced with permission.]

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