When I started practicing Aikido 2 years ago, every time I stepped onto the mat, I felt like a club footed monkey after a lobotomy. I was bad. Very bad. Nothing went right. I didn’t know how to roll, fall, attack, turn, or simply keep my balance. My Kote Gaeshi looked more like Kote Wussie and Ikkyo was more Sicko.
Hardly anything done in Aikido is what a normal person would choose as a first option. It takes a lot of practice to overcome the basic instincts of avoiding punches and kicks, instead stepping into them. Do you know how much confidence it takes to realize just when your attackers think they have you where they want you, they just gave you a great opportunity to introduce them to the Earth… very suddenly.
An internet business is much the same. You’re going to start out doing everything badly. The first product will squeak and whine and you’ll say too little in some parts and cover too much in others. The conversion rate on your first sales page will probably be less than 1%. Benefits instead of features? Not likely in a first draft! When you start blogging, the posts will be short and me tooish or too long and cumbersome. Articles will be hard to come by and lack lustre. You’ll struggle for traffic and sales will be dismal.
But it’s important you do them AND you release them. What you’re looking for at this time is feedback. It’s similar to the time I was performing a technique (poorly) and my partner thought I should have been doing it better. So she (all 5′ 90lbs of her) countered and introduced me to the mat, sharply. In an online business: Did the sales page convert? Where is the traffic coming from? How can I get more? Am I getting a lot of returns? What could I have done better? Each time did I survive and learn my lesson? Yes. Have I had similar lessons since then? Of course, both in Aikido and in my online business. Improvement is the key. Focus on getting better, not how terrible you are today.
Here’s 3 reasons why being bad at something is good:
1. For the ideas. Everything you have problems doing is a potential product/blog post/article - once you find an answer. Don’t understand what FTP is? There’s a blog post. Did you find a nifty combo of techniques for bringing traffic to your site? There’s an e-book. Can’t find a plugin to display a collapsible list of pages in WordPress - develop the software to do it. My suggestion: If you’re having problems with something - WRITE IT DOWN! Put it in a text document specifically for product ideas or write it in your personal journal. I personally keep a list of product ideas in a Writeboard in Basecamp.
2. You get better at it by doing. Everyone was once a beginner. Leonardo Da Vinci probably once drew in stick figures but he went on to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. You don’t get better my reading, you get better by practicing. My suggestion: Consider everything between now and when you consider yourself a master to be nothing more than practice. Practice, practice, practice and make it fun!
3. It’s fun. Perhaps it’s just me, but I find learning fun. I’ve learned you can’t learn about things your already a master of, so if you’re learning, you’re going to be doing it badly. There isn’t a single person who is good at everything. So make learning fun. My suggestion: Kids find most everything interesting. Adopt a child like attitude towards all the tasks you’re faced with. When you learn something let out a big AHA! Then do a little dance.
So get out there and be horrible at something. If you keep at it, in a couple of months/years, you’ll actually be good at it. That’s how the masters got to be masters.
“Visit my blog and learn the art & science of separating your life from your business.” -Steven Lohrenz. Here is the URL: Internet Business Automation
- Steven Lohrenz
Highlights 
March 13th, 2008 