Cardboard and tape
I still know people who haven’t seen this video of Caine’s Arcade. That’s a shame. This story is incredible.
I think the biggest takeaway from the whole thing is how much a child was able to create using, simply, cardboard and tape.
Most people think they need to move a mountain to create a business or accomplish a goal on their bucket list.
A few months ago I was helping a dozen folks test their business ideas. The most common trait I noticed from 90% of these budding and even seasoned entrepreneurs is how much they believe they need to accomplish before they can even start approaching potential customers.
What’s funny about the 90% number is that it seems awfully close to the same percentage of businesses that I find can be started without much more than Caine’s cardboard and tape.
90% of these business ideas don’t need the technical co-founder, or the brilliant designer, or the letter of resignation you need to write to quit your job so you can work 80 hours a week to create your product.
90% of these business ideas don’t need C-corps, domain names, or lawyers.
90% of these business ideas could be turned into businesses without much more than a simple Wordpress installation and a Wufoo form to collect signups and payment information.
A few months ago, I had an idea for a project that seemed like could have some potential as another software business. I’ve been writing software for many years. I’m pretty good at it. I can deploy something much quicker than the average Joe to do X task and start charging customers. But it still takes time.
So instead of putting in the time coding up another software project, I bought a fancy looking theme from WooThemes, and created a form on Wufoo to collect registrations.
It took less than a day.
But within 24 hours of putting out this product of online cardboard and tape, I had 2 customers. A few days later, I had 2 more.
Instead of spending a boatload of time getting some software built just right, I just sold me. I was the product.
Instead of software doing the job I imagined this business could do, I just did it manually for my customers as a consultant. Which was completely and agonizinlgly painful and would never scale to a real business, but that wasn’t the point. I immediately had conversations with these folks helping me understand their needs better than I would have had writing software for months on my lonesome.
Coincidentally, the week I saw Caine’s Arcade the first time, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. There was an exhibit there called “Fast Forward… Inventing the Future”.
Meet William Kamkwamba, the boy who harnessed the wind.
It only took 20-year-old William Kamkwamba a library book, some blue-gum trees, discarded bicycle parts and an inspired idea to become a sensation in his home country. Kamkwamba, who lives in a small African village in Malawi, began building windmills at age 14, after he had to drop of out high school because his family could not afford the tuition of $80 a year. Now his family has three windmills on their property, supplying power to their home for the first time. Since then, Kamkwamba has offered his assistance to others, helped build a windmill for his local school and worked on powering his entire village.
This guy has a fraction of the resources most of the people reading this blog have, and nothing deters him from building his ideas with whatever he has at his disposal.
You have a goal in mind that seems like it’s going to take hundreds of hours and capital you don’t have? Struggling to figure out how you can possibly pull all the millions of glorious pieces together you have imagined in your head?
Take a cue from Caine and William. Start with the few resources you already have. Start with your constraints. Start today. Start with cardboard and tape.
P.S. I’ve been working on a secret project that attempts to turn ways in which we procrastinate into a strength. If you want to give it a try soon, follow me on Twitter: here.