Chase Success not Perfection
Note: This one goes out to my daughter Jenna. Who in November of 2020 made a decision to take action instead of just talking about a problem. If you want to skip the article and watch the video of a 10-year-old girl trying to make a difference, the video link is here (it is also linked at the bottom in case you care to watch after you read).
The Background
It is not uncommon for our family to receive solicitations from organizations asking for help in doing good. Donate here, give to this cause, make a difference in these lives. Not going to lie; most of these get recycled with no action taken.
However, on one occasion, it was our daughter Jenna who intercepted the catalog from a group called World Vision.
My daughter flipped through the catalog and arrived on a page that informed her people are starving and that she could help. One way to help is to buy a family in a village far away a goat and 6 chickens. This planted a seed in her mind.
Later that day she entered our home office with a white piece of paper covered in her messy handwriting. Her face had a shy yet curious look on it. My wife had been part of whatever was about to happen because she looked at our daughter and said, "are you ready to share your idea."
My daughter continuing the shyness, said, "No."
I being curious, insisted on being let in on the secret. My daughter said no. My wife gave some encouragement and finally, my daughter proceed to share that she wanted to buy a goat and some chickens for a family in need and that it would cost $110. Her idea was to sell rubber band bracelets at 2 for $1 to raise the money.
I encouraged her desire to do good and said if she could raise the $110 that mom and dad would match it so she could provide two families a goat and some chickens. She laughed, said okay, and walked out of the office. The once shy grin was replaced by a wide smile.
Later that evening, I walked out of the office. My daughter was sitting at the dining room table with her Chromebook open and the scribbled on white paper next to her.
The next time I saw my daughter, she had completed her presentation, recorded it, and mom had posted it on the world's marketplace, Facebook. My daughter was equal parts excited to be on the way towards her goal and relieved that the anxiety-inducing recording of her sales pitch was over.
Within a few hours, she had exceeded her $110 goal. By how much and what she did with the generous donations can be found at the end of the article. But now for the so what…
Here is What You Can Learn From Jenna and Her Goat Fundraiser
Start with asking yourself what is a problem worth solving.
The world is full of problems. We encounter them all the time at work, in our personal lives, our social feeds, and sometimes in catalogs. The thing all problems long for is a solution. Problems don't need to be talked about, Tweeted or hash tagged. Talking and posting alone have never solved a problem. When you see a problem, the best way to set out to solve it is to…
Ask yourself what does success looks like (set a goal)?
Jenna identified the problem as some people can't meet their basic needs. So she set a specific goal, raise $110 to buy a goat and chickens. This would allow her to solve the problem. It was only after her goal was set that she determined what actions to take to achieve her goal and solve the problem.
In business, we too often get this backward. We will see a problem and immediately go into idea generation before defining success.
Taking action without defining success is like gambling. You might take action and hit it really big, but more than likely you will fall short and be back solving the same problem soon. When you start with a definition of success, your chances for achieving the goal increase exponentially.
Applying this is simple, the next time you set out to solve a problem, start by asking yourself what does success look like. Be specific; success is not solving the problem; success is achieving something that results in solving the problem?"
Once you define success, the next thing to do is…
Identify How you will achieve success (what is your plan)
For Jenna, the problem was a lack of food. Success was raising $110 so that she could provide a family food. This is no small amount of money for a 10-year-old girl. Based on the timing of the catalog's arrival, her birthday had already passed, the holidays were months away, and she knows better than to just ask for money. She explored her options. She figured out that she had a skill (making bracelets). She had a primary market (friends and family) and a secondary market (the social networks of mom and dad). She had materials on hand and if she set the price right, people would be willing to help out.
She set a simple plan. Tell people about the need and what success would look like, tell them what she was doing to meet the need, tell people how they can get involved, and then…
Go to work on working your plan…
She doesn't realize it, but her approach had a tremendous amount of intentionality behind it and followed an excellent process.
She got permission to move forward to make sure she had the support needed to move her plan from idea to production "mom if I do this will you put it on Facebook?"
She wrote out her plan, so she knew what steps to take (the white piece of paper with handwritten notes)
She completed her work product (the presentation and the bracelets)
Then she practiced (call it tested) and made adjustments until she was comfortable it would succeed (encourage people to donate)
And then she went to market (had mom post it on Facebook)
Notice what she didn't do
She didn't seek perfection. Was her presentation perfect (no), completely error-free (no), did she have some of the finer details worked out (like thank you notes after the fact- nope), but she got the idea well past good enough, and then went to market.
All too often in the business world, we wait unnecessarily for one more opinion to come in or to adjust this one last thing, or for the right time to launch. I don't like everything about AGILE methodology, but the idea that you release a minimal viable product (MVP), then gather feedback and make adjustments is a pretty practical idea.
The other thing she didn't do was worry about what happens if I fail. Failure wasn't really something she considered. When I asked her what happens if you don't reach your goal, she said I am not worried about that; I am sure I can buy something to help people with whatever money I get.
In the business world, we too often let the fear of failure prevent us from taking action. The old "what if statements". What if this or what if that… then the next thing you know. The only thing you are left to consider is, I wonder what would have happened if we had done that thing.
Conclusion
In business, it is essential to get the right things done in the right order
Identify a problem
Define what success looks like
Create a plan
Work the plan, but don't seek perfection
Then launch
Make adjustments as you learn
A lot more impact would be created if more people took action rather than
Chasing perfection
Fearing small failures
Staying comfortable instead of innovating
The Rest of Jenna's Story
By the time Jenna arrived home from basketball that evening, a mere 4 hours after my wife had posted her video on Facebook, she had raised over $500. By the end of the week, when her campaign had closed, she had raised over $1000. She had received donations from over 30 people. In the end, she exceeded her goal by 10X and that allowed her to do more good than she thought possible.
Do you know what you can buy for $1033?
Here is a link to the video of Jenna pitching her idea.
Here is a link to the World Vision Catalog should you want to try your hand at solving the world's problems or at least the problems in somebody's world.
Note: I have no association with World Vision, nor am I actively endorsing them. Simply sharing my daughter's story and providing access to information for you to evaluate in case you are looking to help someone out by buying them a goat.