Know-How Exchange : Strategy

Dear Ba,

Ooh! What a great question.

In his book "The Four Hour Work Week" Tim Ferriss talks about something called Parkinson's Law that says basically, any task that is assigned WITHOUT a deadline will expand, time-wise, to occupy the time it takes to complete it.

What this means in essence is that the only thing that lights a fire to complete something by a specific time is an impending deadline from which there is NO escape.

A point of view that connects with this, and this is from Bill Harrison, one the top publicity gurus in the USA (who also happens to be a member of my local GKIC Chapter): market first, then focus on production.

I know someone who needs to take this advice to heart: me, and it's something I'm working on. Deadline. Project done. Market ready.

I realize this counters Peter's opinion but Bill's point is that until your product, book, screenplay, service, widget or whatever is in front of people, they cannot know about it. They WILL not know about it.

Even if it's half finished, or even just a few sketches or an outline, putting this semi-complete thing in front of your target audience and telling them it will be ready in 30 days, or 60 days or whatever, this then gives you something to aim for.

The deadline then becomes a self imposed tool that focuses attention and that forces you to take action. AND, on top of this, the market is already semi-primed to receive your thing.

The thinking here is as follows: if your product isn't finished, stop aiming for perfection and just get it out there. It can be fine tuned later.

But ultimately, you've got to do whatever's right for you. However, the longer it takes you to answer this question, the more time you'll find goes by, time in which you'll still have made little progress.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA