Why It’s Smart to Start Small and/or Sucky

I wonder, do we have any sailors in the audience? Because I just want to be able to say to someone, “Hey, sailor.” If you’re a sailor, let us know. I’m a sailor.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be hand thong to create a business and life you love. And this is Q&A Tuesday. And today I have a question for you. I got to ask you. Do you ever stop yourself from creating something you really want to do because you look to someone you admire and you think, “Oh my God, I am never going to be as good as them.”

So if you’re like many people I talk to, you’re probably stopping yourself from producing something, writing something, [inaudible 00:00:48] something because you’re not willing to start small or start sucky. In other words, you are stuck in perfection paralysis. Now if this sounds like you, I got a little story that I hope will help you come out and play.

As you may know, I started out my life coaching business when I was 23 years old and I had big dreams. I knew I wanted to teach a lot of people, really great ideas that would help them improve their life. So my dreams were loads of people in a big stage and all that jazz. But the reality was I was just starting out and I hardly had any clients. I was just in the baby stages of building my business.

But I was so pumped from my coach training and I was learning all of these cool new ideas and I just had to share them with others. So I decided to hold my first workshop and it was titled How to Create a Life You Love. And it was incredibly well attended by five people. It was my yoga teacher Claire, two friends that she dragged around from the neighborhood and my parents.

Now I was very professional. I did have a venue, it was Claire’s basement in Summit, New Jersey. And you know, of course it was a workshop. So I had workshop materials that I created myself with Microsoft Word and some very fancy clip art. And of course, every workshop, right? You have to have an easel. So I had a nice easel with the markers to make sure that the entire crowd could follow along.

Looking back, I get douche chills thinking about giving a workshop to five people in a basement. It feels really painful and pathetic. But the truth is there is absolutely nothing painful or pathetic about it. I mean, I took a risk, I did something, I put myself out there and I did my very best to deliver value to all five of those people. That small and sucky workshop gave me the courage to keep going because guess what? I had already done my lamest workshop. Bam in the bag.

Nailed it. And I’ll tell you that confidence and that momentum really fueled me ahead. Don’t forget, every pro starts off as an amateur. So the next time you find yourself stuck in perfection paralysis, take a tip from this tweetable tongue twister. Starting small and sucky beats staying stucky. Put that in your pipe and smoke it and then say it three times fast.

Now I would love to hear from you. So are you stopping yourself from doing something because you’re not willing to be anything less than polished or perfect? Or how about this one. If you look back in your past, is there something that you did that was small and sucky that makes you cringe now when you look back at it, but totally got your balls rolling? As always, the best discussions happen after the episodes over at marieforleo.com so go there and leave a comment now.

Did you like this video? If so, subscribe to our channel and share it with all of your friends. And if you want even more great resources to create a business and life that you love plus some personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, get yourself over to marieforleo.com and sign up for email updates.

Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV.

Say my name baby. Track me baby. No unnecessary [inaudible 00:00:04:18]. I have a man under my chair and I like it