Just Start is also the title of their latest book, with the subtitle: ”Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future”. The starting point of the book is precisely that the world we live in today is unpredictable. But the way we've learned to navigate it is based on experiences with a world that was far more predictable. So the reason it can be difficult for us to navigate this unpredictable world is simply because we are using the wrong navigation strategy.

But what to do then? And who knows how to do this successfully? The authors have turned to successful serial entrepreneurs who, if anyone, manage to do business in a landscape of uncertainty and unpredictability. It has been shown that although all entrepreneurs are different and their reasons for starting their own business are different, the way they make their decisions is very similar.

The authors build i.a. their method on research conducted by Professor Saras D. Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, who compared the decision-making process of a wide range of entrepreneurs. She describes the process they use as follows:

1. “Take a small, smart step forward
2. Pause to see what they learned by doing so; spirit
3. Build that learning into what they do next.”

The authors' version of the above process reads in all its simplicity:

• Act
• Learn (from that action) and
• Build (off that learning), and act again

It sounds simple, but, according to the authors, it is not how most of us do it. As I said, this method differs from the planning method we have learned from childhood, where we typically assume that the future, broadly speaking, is going to be the same as the past. And while the method works in many situations – where mathematics and statistics make sense – there are other, more unpredictable situations where it does not work.

Just start

The method starts with a "smart step", which the authors describe as "an action you take, based on the resources you already have". And which never involves more than you can afford to lose, ie. your acceptable loss. Your "smart step" can involve others, even if it doesn't have to. Once you've taken your first step, take some time to reflect on what you've learned. From there you take another small step.

The authors call the method "creation", a term that is a contraction of "acting" and "creating evidence”. As the name suggests, the method is evidence-based. That is that you should do no more than the evidence (ie the results of your actions) show you is warranted.

The Creacting process

The creating process consists of three steps.

1. Wish. Find or think of something you would like. You don't have to be very passionate about it, just enough to start. (Ex. "I really want to start a restaurant, but I have no idea if I will ever be able to do it.")
2. Take a small step as fast as you can. This step consists of three parts:
   • Act quickly with the funds you have. That is what you know, who you know and what else is available. (“I know a great chef, and if I ask my family and friends to support me, I might have enough money to open a restaurant.”)
   • Stay within your acceptable loss. Make sure that the price of your "smart step" (in terms of time, money, etc.) is never higher than what you are willing to lose if it doesn't work out.
   • Bring others along to access more resources, share the risk and confirm that your idea holds.
3. Build further, on what you have learned from the first step. Every time you act, reality changes. If you pay attention, you will learn something from taking a "smart step". Eg:
   • You often get close to what you want ("I should be able to afford something just outside the center"). Sometimes your wish changes (“it looks like there are a lot of Italian restaurants nearby. We need to come up with a new menu”). After you took action, did the action bring you closer to your goal? (Yeah, looks like I can open my restaurant?”) Need more resources? (“Yes, I need to find another chef, the one I know can only cook Italian”) Is your goal still the same? (“Yes!”) Act again until, based on what you learn, you feel, you want (or you've decided you don't want it or that you'd rather have something else).

Source: Paul B. Brown, Leonard A. Schlesinger and Charles F. Kiefer: Just Start: Take Action; Embrace Uncertainty and Create the Future (2012)