Premise:
One of the things that a lot of entrepreneurs who failed in their first attempt at starting and running their enterprise attribute their failure to is – Timing. They complain that their timing was wrong. They were much ahead of time. The users or customers were not mature enough to adopt their product or service.
Some wanna be entrepreneurs use timing as their crutch. They are waiting for the right time to launch thier business. This is not the right time, the economy is not doing very well, or is doing too well. The timing is not really great from a personal stand-point.
Most successful entrepreneurs attribute their success to luck and timing. They say there were there at the right time and at the right place, doing the right thing. It is this narrative that creates a false sense of importance about timing.
In this short film, titled Timing, the team at White Flag Productions talk about the myth of “The PERFECT TIMING”.
Lessons Learnt:
Some lessons in entrepreneurship that I learnt while watching this film are as below.
Perfect Timing = NOW:
There is no perfect timing. No, wait, there is perfect timing. We don’t find or discover perfect timing, we create it. We create the perfect situations and the perfect opportunities. How? By being present when they show up. Just like we need to be in the water if we want to find that great tide to surf on, we need to be in the game, in order to find the perfect timing. We will never catch that great tide if we are on the shore, waiting. So, the right time to start something is now. The right time to do something is now. The right time to create art is now. The right time to create the change we want to see is now. The right time to be the change we want to see in the world is now.
Spiritual Suicide:
If there is a creator, artist or an entrepreneur within us and we don’t pursue that dream, it is like committing spiritual suicide. The missed opportunities and the lost time will always weigh on our soul and continue to give distress and pain all life long. As they say, the biggest regret that people who are about to die are about things that they wanted to do but didn’t. Let us learn from them and not allow the same regrets to enter our lives. Let’s not commit spiritual suicide.
Messenger of Misery:
As any creative, artist or entrepreneur will tell us, there comes a time in their journey when the messenger of misery will pay is a visit. Some call it resistance, some call it block and entrepreneurs call it a stall out. Just like there needs to be a moment in every Hero’s journey which tests the hero to the core, before transforming him/her into the hero that we can love, so it is in the life of every one of us. We should not only be prepared to deal with the messenger when she comes knocking on our doors but in a way expect and welcome her with arms spread out. This is a moment in our journey which will transform us from a mere mortal to a hero (hopefully!!).
Cometh the hour, cometh the teacher:
In Eastern philosophy, they say that the teacher appears when the student is ready. Not before, not after. It makes our lives easier as entrepreneurs if we believe in this. When we go for a stretch goal, something that we truly aspire for, something that seems to be so far away from our reach, we need to believe that when we are ready, our teacher will come who will help us uncover the hidden talents, resilience and the strength that is needed to achieve our goals. The teacher could come in any shape, form or figure. It could be in the form of a thought, a chance encounter, a random connection or even as a mentor. We just need to believe that the teacher will come.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, I will only want to say this – “There is never a wrong time to do the right thing”.
Lets get started! Lets keep going!
