I came of age in the 90s in Silicon Valley. The startup virus still infects me. These are the sorts of things you never forget.

I was talking to my brother–startup Patient zero in my life–about a new business project I wanted to do. I was nervous about this and that, and he said, “I’m going to say it. You know this. Get rid of all the friction that keeps you from getting it launched.”

I did know it. I realized he was right. “I need a minimum viable product.”

Just the least amount of something to make a start.

7 league boots are for fairy tales. We all walk a step at a time. So– step. Take the step. The minimum possible step to get it going.

In my training as a Scrum Master, that widely abused style of technology project management, they trained me to think, “Always be shipping.” Just get it out there. A product is required for a business to start. Perfection is not required. We could wait for the perfectly designed solution, or we could use the rocks and twigs that are hanging around and do enough of a something to keep the momentum going.

Doing nothing does more than delay. It sets motionless in motion. It put intertia into effect. The second law of thermodynamics, which waits for no one, says basically that entropy always increases.

We will naturally decline into chaos and disorder. It is only by injected our will and using energy to keep things moving that we can override this decline.

Everything in the universe tells us this is so.

Keep moving. Always be putting it out there and always keep trying. It’s the trying that is more important than the succeeding.

Because in motion we can change course. Getting in motion takes way more energy.