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Motion versus progress is today’s topic on The Startup Chat.  Motion and progress can actually look similar, but there’s a big difference.  You may have a long list of things to do and you feel very busy, but are you actually making progress?  Hiten and Steli discuss what motion and progress look like and how to make sure you are making progress instead of just in motion.

Steli says you may be busy doing things, but they may not be the important things.  He lists developing things for your business like a logo, name, T Shirts, business cards and blog as all things that are motion, but not progress.  His advice is, don’t waste your time on these things, even though motion is more comfortable than progress.  Hiten says there are two things a business needs – a great product and and distribution.  Making progress is working toward one of the two goals.  

It can be difficult to know if you are in motion – being busy – or making progress.  We discuss some ways you can set metrics or milestones to help you know the difference.  Those standards have to be high enough so that you know the progress you’re making is good progress.  Hiten says when it comes to making progress with a product, it’s not a great product unless your customer say so.  He believes a business is all about customers and if you just focus on them,  generally everything works out.   We also discuss the importance of finding similar peers who are a few steps ahead of you in the process and find out how you compare with them to judge what type of progress you’re making.  

Today’s Tips:

Hiten::  Do a personal inventory of what you’re doing and check off the items that are actually progressing you toward something.  It will give you a clearer idea of where your time is going.  

If you don’t know if you’re making motion or progress, you’re probably in motion and not progress because you don’t actually have a deliberate goal set.  

Steli:  Look at everything on you To-do list and kill 2 or 3 items.  If you feel panicked about doing that then make sure you really do it because that means you are attached to that thing for a stupid reason.  

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