| “An incoherence and absurdity that’s a little short of the symptoms of insanity”.
Not a great compliment by any stretch of the imagination.
The words above were poured on John Harrison, an 18th-century British clockmaker after he announced he’d build a pendulum timepiece that would be accurate to within a second over 100 days.
At the time, it seemed ludicrous.
What’s even more interesting is that if you think today’s watches are much better… they aren’t. The average mechanical watch gains or loses 15 seconds per day. Quartz watches gain or loses 15 seconds per month… better, but not by a mile.
And yes, there are atomic clocks today that are super accurate. But those require cooling the atoms to near absolute zero by slowing them with lasers and probing them in atomic fountains in a microwave-filled cavity. Hardly something you’d want to keep in your pocket or on your wrist, even if it was possible, right? So instead, we use iPhones and get our time from atomic clocks like that through the internet… another tech marvel.
Now, here’s the interesting thing.
Almost 250 years later, they built a clock to John Harrison’s exact specifications from the 18th century.
And, after a 100-day trial period, it was officially declared, by the Guinness Book of World Records, to be the “world’s most accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum swinging in the free air”. It was off only ⅝ of a second.
So the last laugh lies with the 18th-century British watchmaker.
It’s a fun story. But there’s an important lesson inside.
And it goes beyond the obvious ones - like, “become so good at your thing, they admire you centuries later” (almost impossible!) or “an accurate mechanical clock with a pendulum is a very narrow niche, so you should choose your narrow niche so you can dominate it” (all good and valid, but overly simplistic), or “things take time” (which is a great pun if we’re talking about watches but no, it’s not the lesson in Harrison’s story).
Can you guess it yet?
Here it is.
If you’ve decided to build a successful business online, it doesn’t matter all that much what you pick first.
Physical products on Amazon? Fine. On Etsy or Shopify? Fine. Dropshipping? Fine. Information products? Fine. Services for local businesses? Fine. Doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that you create your specifications first.
You don’t need to be super detailed or anything.
However, just like John Harrison’s clock, your business won’t be built on a vague idea.
For example, if your goal is “I want to live the laptop lifestyle”, you need to figure out what the “laptop lifestyle” means for you, specifically. Does it mean moving to another state or another country? Or does it mean you just want to stop commuting for an hour each way every weekday? Does it mean having no boss? Or you’d just be happy for the opportunity to work remotely and set your hours?
Then, work backward. What specific steps do you need to take to make this a reality?
I’m not saying it’s possible to plan out every little detail - and it’s not even necessary unless you expect someone to build that business 250 years after you’re gone to your exact specifications.
But too many would-be entrepreneurs try to build something while only having a vague idea of what it is that they want. Get specific. Get inspired. And then, get dirty.
To Your Success, Paul Hanson
|
|
|
