Vision without Execution is Hallucination

By Becky Downing

Execution is the hard part of building a new business.

It's the experience of the relentless waking up every day, and banging your head against a wall until your business works, that counts. Coming up against countless barriers and problems, and finding a way through.

Think about it. You can spend 1-6 months on ideation, and sure, this will help de-risk things somewhat. But in terms of where you actually build the value in a business...well that happens in the 5-10+ years that follow post GTM! 📈

The value gets created from compounding execution over the years. And it never gets any easier. You can't buy your way out of this. So the first step is accepting this, and the second step is dedicating yourself to ongoing, never ending, learning.

It's not about falling in love with building the product. It's about falling in love with the process of building a great company. Make the shift from building a great product and idea to great execution.

To be successful at venture building, you've either got to just get going with it and accept you're going to trip up a million times along the way (and that's OK, as long as you're learning). Alternatively you spend some time working with or for someone who has done it before, and has a few t-shirts.

No amount of smarts, strategising or investment into smart people will ever trump execution and experience of executing... It's the courage to start, and then keen going that matters!