Big Ideas, Small Wins.

I’m going to give it to you straight. Launching a business or product to market is not for the fainthearted. 

Over my career, I’ve been lucky enough to help build four businesses from scratch and witness successful financial exits for two of them.  After experiencing the builder’s journey from beginning to end, the most profound insight I’ve gained is one that might surprise you: I’ve learned that the best way to keep moving forward when building a business, is not by focusing on the finish line but celebrating the small wins along the way. 

It may seem counterintuitive, especially in a world that loves headlining the ‘industry disruptor’ and ‘overnight success’.  We’ve become so hardwired for the big accomplishments and innovations that we’ve lost the art of noticing the everyday ones.  It’s the small wins that inspire us to dust ourselves off and keep going when the challenges hit, and our well laid plans begin falling apart.

In 2011, the power of small wins caught the attention of the Harvard Business Review. Referring to it as the ‘progress principal,’ researchers studied the things that boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday and found that the most important catalyst was making progress in meaningful work.

“When we think about progress, we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough. These big wins are great—but they are relatively rare. The good news is that even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously.”

We all know that progress is rarely a straight line, and starting a business is no exception.  Small wins help reinforce that our big ideas aren’t crazy and the sacrifices we’re making are worth it. The more we pay attention to our progress, the more we reshape our mindset to focus on what we’ve achieved rather than what we’re lacking.  It’s a forward-moving energy that keeps driving us towards the next significant milestone, without burning out. 

Just to be clear, this is not about rose-coloured optimism.  Building anything that’s worth building takes guts, perseverance, and sheer bloody mindedness.  Knowing how to appreciate the everyday victories is crucial when you’re playing the long game.  

And if you want me to break it down in numbers, if you accumulate enough small wins over time, they’ll eventually add up to the big one.   When the big one comes, I’d suggest making that launch party as wild, and as loud, as you like!