The “Ortho” Spectrum, Part II

Finding a balance between Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy isn’t limited to the church.

When I took Lean Launchpad with Professor English, I realized how easy it is to spend too much time within the planning stage of making an idea come to life. I slipped into this mindset again recently, where for some reason I thought my Marketing plan for certain business ideas had to be at 100% before attempting to assess demand from the market.

Reflecting back on my Lean Launchpad class, I remember how we were constantly encouraged to test our theories and questions by “getting out of the building” and putting our planning on pause. An idea is just a theory. There is no way to truly know if your grand idea will work until you market test it.

What’s my point with this discussion? Many entrepreneurs today are held back by thinking they need to have the “perfect marketing plan” before they execute. More still execute with absolutely no plan. Mark Zuckerburg started with an idea and immediately executed on it, and was rewarded greatly for it- in this case, he solved a problem on a smaller scale that ended up being a great solution to a larger audience as well. Mark is closer to the Orthopraxy side of the spectrum, whereas too many people tend to live on the extreme end of Orthodoxy.

Where do you fall? Do you have a healthy balance? What’s holding you back?