I have a friend who will get excited about an idea and work 14 hour days for a week until he’s happy with the progress made. I have another friend who won’t make small changes (that will grow his business and careers) to save his life, despite there being the resources and support necessary to influence (and sustain) the changes.

People who prepare, research, and plan (without taking action) are in some ways the opposite of people who ship, fail, iterate aggressively enough to find success. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with preparation, research, and planning…but I know people who have been “preparing to” do/launch/quit/ship a [project/product/job/idea] since I met them.

We all have the capacity to make meaningful behavioral and mindset changes, but the likeliness of us doing this decreases every time we take the easy path. Every time we make a smaller promise in secret, hoping we never fail. Every time we plan for months instead of shipping a Minimum Viable Product.

Not everyone is wired with the habits that bring success, but there’s no law stopping us from emulating effective humans until their positive traits become our own.