This week, during our all-company meeting in London which we are affectionately calling the “Distilled-a-thon”, we had a day that we chose to call a “ship-a-thon”. The goal of this day was for each and every person in Distilled to “ship” something that would make the company better.
My big ship for the day, along with Will Critchlow, Mike Pantoliano, and Geoff Kenyon is something that scares me a lot, but is incredibly exciting. Incredibly exciting because it will be really cool, but scary.
The lesson for yesterday: shipping is scary.
Quieting The Lizard Brain
I recently came across a video on The99Percent (one of my favorite sites and one that you should check out more often) called Quieting The Lizard Brain (embedded below) by Seth Godin.
In this video, he talks about many things, but what stuck with me was where he says “I keep winning because I keep shipping”. Shipping is hard because it requires you to have expertise (or enough hustle to make up for that lack of expertise), and I think this is why many people don’t ship. Also, if you create something and expose it to the public, you are opening yourself up to criticism and possible failure.
This week at the Distilled-a-thon we have talked about failure and the fact that failing at least means that you’re trying. I think that is the mindset we need to have more often. If you fail, at least you have tried and you will learn important lessons that help you in the future.
Watch and enjoy.
Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.
Conclusion
Shipping is hard. I already said that. But it’s invigorating and inspiring! I would be willing to bet that some of your best points in your career have been when you have shipped something AWESOME and it was well received. There’s no better feeling.
What have you shipped recently? I’ve got a couple more things to ship soon. But first, I’m shipping this post.
Hey Man!
OK, admittedly, didn’t watch the video yet – but I will. I DID follow what you guys were doing though for “ship-a-thon”, signed up on the U list and looks very exciting!
It did give me an idea, to try a ship-a-thon day for myself. I’m only one person, but might be fun to see how much I can ship in one day…
-Dan
Well I highly recommend watching the video, and I think that your idea is great! I was brainstorming the same thing with Rob O yesterday, thinking that it might be very cool to set aside one day per week as a “ship day”. This day you try to ship as much work as possible. No Twitter, no other stuff, just get things done.
Let me know if you implement it!
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