How to Prevent Poor Performance
Have you ever jumped right into something without planning anything first? Sometimes it works out, you wing your way through it and don’t utterly fail. But the bigger the task, the more planning you’ll need. If you want to write a book, you learn how to write a book before you start pounding out words (hopefully, anyway).
This isn’t a new concept. And it back much further than the old saying, “Those who fail to plan are really planning to fail.” Let’s take a look at how Jesus explained it.
28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.” Luke 14:28-30 NIV
Estimate the Costs Before a Project
We don’t even have to adapt this to modern day life. If we want to build a building, we first make sure that we have enough money to finish the project.
How foolish will we look if we run out of money part way through because we didn’t carefully plan what we’re doing?
This hit me pretty hard a couple of years ago. While I didn’t run out of money part way through the project, I did invest a lot into a program that I called No to Grow – going from No idea to Growing that idea so you can live a life on your own terms. The program was designed to teach people how to draw out the skills they already have, and make money on the side with them. Who wouldn’t want to make more money? All the feedback I got from it was that it was valuable, and people needed it. I priced it competitively, and spent a lot of money on design, websites, hosting, and more.
And it totally flopped.
I hadn’t estimated the costs efficiently, because if I had, I would have done it very differently.
Estimate the Work Before a Task
There’s more than just the costs too, though. There’s a work aspect that goes into any plan you are putting together. How much work will this take? For my No to Grow program, I poured hundreds of hours into this thing.
But it did teach me an important lesson: pouring money and work into something isn’t going to guarantee success.
I now have a new program that teaches people how to write a book. I call it the Author’s Mastery Academy. It’s designed to show people exactly what they need to do so they can write their book, get published, and hopefully see great success as a published author.
After mapping it all out, briefly, I sought feedback. Again, hailed as “highly needed” and “I’d totally enroll in this.” But I didn’t build it then and there. Instead, I discounted the price and offered it to the beta group for a far lower cost. The exchange is that they would give feedback as the course was built.
I did far better this time around, because I knew I could pour a lot of time and effort into creating this course, but if it doesn’t sell, then I wasted all that time and effort.
How to Create Plans with Less Risk
We don’t get far in life if we don’t create proper plans. Anything that’s going to succeed beyond our wildest dreams has to be thoughtfully and carefully planned out.
Before you get started, know the costs. Straight up, how much money will it cost, and will you recoup that investment?
Know the work involved. Will you be disappointed if you dump a ton of work into something that nobody really cares for?
Develop your MVP – minimally viable product. This will help you understand what people want, what they’re looking for, and what they will pay for it. You can always improve the product, but you need to make sure that it’s marketable first.
Learn How to Write a Book with Scott Sery
Because I’m a writer, I’m all about helping authors get published, and achieve great success. When you succeed, we all succeed.
That’s why I’m still offering the Author’s Mastery Academy at a greatly reduced rate. It’s basically one-on-one hand-held guidance from developing your idea to writing to publishing.
Have you considered writing a book? Become one of the minority who actually do it. Claim your free 30-minute discovery call and let’s get started before it’s too late and the costs go back up.