#AchieveYourGoals Archives

On how execution is what really matters in startupland

We have a saying in track and field, “Run fast, turn left.”

I remember one of my middle school friends making fun of the assistant coach after they said it for the first time.

“So stupid,” he said as he jabbed an elbow into the boy’s arm next to him, trying to sound cool. “What idiot turns right?”

Like many of us in middle school, this boy missed the point in his quest for social acceptance.

If only he’d been truly listening, he would have understood that the meaning behind “Run fast, turn left.” is quite powerful. You could be Usain Bolt – the fastest person in the world – but if you don’t follow the process, you will be disqualified.

You can have the best idea in the world and an all-star team, but if you can’t execute, nothing else matters.

Someone once told me that I was the “queen of execution” but that I didn’t have what it takes to start a business. Let me tell you: execution is EXACTLY the skill you need to start a business.

From the queen herself, here are a few tips on execution.

See the goal.

If what you’re doing doesn’t get you closer to your goal, then you need to reprioritize quickly. My basketball coach used to say “see the goal” while we did courtside pushups as a way to keep our necks engaged.

I now envision that round hole, glass backboard, mesh net and bright red square every time I do a pushup. Let me give you a work example too.

We initially funded CREx with consulting dollars (I’m a no bullshit person and don’t call this R&D or whatever you’re supposed to do when talking to investors). One of our early consulting opportunities was with a guy that had us redo the deck 8 times, pitch to him twice, and yet, he STILL hadn’t introduced our offering to the executive team. Not to mention that he nickled and dimed us on every little piece of the consulting proposal.

Rather than continuing down this godforsaken (and low margin, if any) rabbit hole, we bowed out.

It was scary to do that because that kind of consulting project paid our bills. Ultimately though, that deal would have cost us more than it benefited us; we would have been in the red on time spent.

We opted instead to see the goal – supporting ourselves with projects that would allow us time to build our SaaS product.

Break big ideas into smaller, tactical pieces.

If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are you have lofty visions. However, you need to be realistic about the time it takes to accomplish pieces of that vision. Focus on what matters most, and then…

Cut, cut, and cut some more.

Get your team together and ask each other over and over again, “Is this feature really necessary?” “Will it impact the user experience significantly if we wait to include it in the next iteration?”

Cut as much as you can so that you can get the product/feature in your users hands and have real user feedback ASAP.

This is something that Darren Allen, or Daz, does exceptionally well for us at CREx. By focusing on the simplest version of the feature possible, we move quickly while still solving our customers’ problems.

Celebrate the wins.

Starting a company is tough.

Building a product is even tougher.

You will probably get it wrong the first few times, and that’s okay. When you do get it right, go all out and celebrate. Let your team know that you appreciate them and respect their hard work.

In summary, you can be the best at what you do and still not succeed simply because you can’t execute. Focus on execution.

And remember: Run fast, turn left.

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The importance of practice | Don’t be afraid to try something new

My high school basketball team worked harder than any other team I’ve ever had.

We practiced year-round. In season, we practiced 6 days a week, even when we had games. Our strengths were our endurance, team comradery, and muscle memory. Truth be told, we ran more during our basketball practices than I ran in my track or cross country practices! And we did the same drills, over and over: quick feet, jab steps, punch passing, etc.

Not only did we work our butts off in the gym, we also set goals for each game. Think of it as the basketball version of OKRs (and this was well before OKRs gained popularity). We had targets for shooting percentages by 2 pointers and 3 pointers, turnovers, assists, offensive and defensive rebounds, and more.

If we exceeded our targets, our reward was that we almost always won the game. Our coach would also reduce the amount of running over the next week. If we failed our targets, not only did we typically lose, we also had to do sit-ups for each basis point that we missed our goal.

In one (rare) scenario where we lost and played particularly badly, we had to do 532 sit-ups. 5-3-2. These days, I’m happy to do 30 sit-ups, much less over 500! But we did every single one of them. As a team.

We knew that based on how we practiced and played, we can and should have done better. We held ourselves accountable. And you know what? We won the state championship later that year. We were the first women’s team from Martin’s Mill to win state ever, and the first for all genders since 1949.

I’m not the tallest or the fastest. I don’t have the best hand-eye coordination. But what basketball taught me was that if I did enough reps of anything, then I could get good enough to be better than average.

That’s how I learned the importance of practice.

It’s also how I learned to not be afraid to try something that I’m not naturally gifted at right off the bat.

Face Your Fears

Let me give you an example.

I was wrapping up my first year of college and needed to find a summer job. My closest friend found an on-campus events coordinator job, and I thought it would be fun to stay on campus that summer with her. The only other role available was a summer internship at the admissions office. The admissions intern mainly gave tours of the campus to prospective students 2-3 times a day.

Many of you who know me now may not believe this, but I was painfully shy at 19 years old. As one example, I was afraid to talk to strangers on the phone. I used to call my mom and beg her to make a call on my behalf.

I would literally panic on the phone with a stranger, palms sweating and heart racing. Just the idea of speaking to someone I didn’t know terrified me. Fortunately, my mom recognized the impending panic in my voice and agreed to make calls for me. That said, I was NOT ready to give tours to 50+ students a day.

Then, I remembered my basketball training. Giving tours can’t be that different than flexing and strengthening a muscle, right? So I applied for the job. To make sure I landed the position, I asked one of my professors to give me a recommendation. (This is how I first learned about the importance of referrals and reputation; more on this later.) Turns out, he was friends with the admissions hiring manager! Bingo. I landed the job… for which I had absolutely no skills.

Walk the Talk

I approached my tours how I approached every basketball game. I practiced, and I practiced, and I practiced. My parents ingratiated me with listening to every iteration. Many of my friends did too. Days before the internship started, I talked myself hoarse. Then, I started practicing in front of a mirror with memorized words and hand gestures.

I’ll never forget that first tour. My backwards-walking skills needed improvement, to say the least. I still laugh to myself thinking about the faces of prospective students and parents who tried to warn me before I banged the back of my head on a car window while crossing the parking lot backwards!

I had to use notecards because I nervously forgot my lines a few times. Still, I made it through. The second tour went smoother, as did the third and fourth.

After a couple of weeks of actively giving tours, I had it down. So much so that I started making up jokes. The parents loved it. I also told stories about our historic buildings.

For example, the Cullen Building staircase has unusually short steps. I would normally take them two at a time to classes. For purposes of the tour, however, I would slowly, painstakingly walk up each step, explaining to the group of prospective students and parents that when Southwestern opened for women, the female students weren’t allowed to show their ankles. They had to take tiny steps to avoid impropriety. 👀

“Can you imagine what those professors would have thought of me in this tank top!?” I’d joke, eyes open wide in mock horror. (It was over 100 degrees most days that summer!)

All that to say, we had a stronger application pool that year than ever before… in no small part due to my tour and also, our amazing admission staff.

Practice, Practice, Practice

I share all of this to tell you – don’t be afraid to try something new that you don’t feel equipped for.

Want to learn to code? Practice every day for a month and see how amazing you become.

Want to learn a new language? There is no substitute for practicing daily with a friend.

Afraid of public speaking? Practice in front of a mirror and then groups of friends and family.

You may just find that you love learning new things. And what a gift that would be!

You can do more than you think you can.

Practice, practice, practice.

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MY COMMITMENT | Never sell or share your data | Provide useful and impactful stories