It's OK if you suck....

Every successful business has a dirty little secret: They didn’t know if they were going to be successful when they started. They probably did their homework, researched the market and had a bit of experience. But there were no guarantees.

I just finished a book about Google called The Search, by John Battelle. What I learned from the book is that it’s easy to look at a company like Google and say "Larry and Sergey are so impressive. They had a vision to change the world and they did it. I could never be like that."

The truth is, they had no idea if they were going to succeed when they started. What if Larry had said to Sergey, "Hmmm, I don’t know Sergey. Surely somebody has already figured out this search thing - and they probably know what they’re doing! We’re just a couple of college kids so let’s just play it safe and get good jobs at a stable company."

This is all very similar to when you realise that your parents don’t know everything. All the sudden it hits you that there are no black and white rules and that you’ve got to start figuring things out for yourself. Starting a company is exactly the same. All those people and businesses that you look up to and respect - they’re just like you. They don’t have some special magic expertise that helps them make good decisions - they have to figure it out for themselves and hope they make the right call.

I think a great example of my point is da Vinci’s masterpiece, La Gioconda, also known as the Mona Lisa. When he sat down to paint it, he had no idea that it would become one of the world’s most famous paintings.

What if he had waited until he was sure he was going to paint a masterpiece? The answer is that he probably would’ve never started.

Get used to being uncomfortable and allow yourself to suck at times.

It’s totally normal to try and err and it’s a good sign that you’re pushing yourself.

When you get nervous about starting your own company, or launching that new product, just remember that even the best of the best felt nervous and uncomfortable when they started. Just like you, they took a gamble and hoped for the best, with no guarantees of success.

Get a load of this.....The sooner you’re OK with feeling scared, the sooner you can get on with executing your ideas.