Launching Ideas

You don’t think NASA just wheels a rocket out to the launch pad, counts backward from 10, and hits a big red button, do you? There is a lot of thought and preparation that goes into launching a rocket (and people!) into space.

Launching ideas isn’t rocket science

As opposed to launching real vessels into space, launching an idea from your brain into the real world isn’t nearly as stressful or dire (but sometimes it can feel that way). When rockets are involved, the scientists have to worry about only getting a single chance at getting it right. If there’s a catastrophic failure and the thing blows up — they may never get another chance to try again in their lifetime.

When you’re launching an idea, the opposite is true.
If you launch fast and frequently, you can have almost as many launches as you want. Think of it as having a bunch of tiny, less-stressful (and less expensive) launches, rather than putting all of your space-chicken’s eggs in one basket.

Launching fast and frequently allows you to iterate more quickly, make improvements based on real-world performance (instead of emotional worrying), and build interest and excitement from fans and followers.

Lee Launches. (a lot.)

During the COVID shutdown in Great Britain, my friend Lee decided to see how many ideas he could put out into the world. He started a website called LeeLaunches.com with the goal of launching something (anything!) new every. single. day. He kept a daily launch log with his plans and allowed people to follow along in social media or by joining his email list. Lee gave away some of the projects he launched for free, others he charged a small fee, and others required an ongoing subscription.

Lee launched something every day for almost two entire months. It was an aggressive pace to keep up, and Lee’s no slouch (so it wasn’t always something simple he was creating on a daily basis). Many times the projects were complex bits of software requiring hours of work to create.

Lee is no longer launching daily — but he is still launching a lot of things from the space between his ears into the real world space around us. Visit Lee’s website and see what he’s been launching lately!