Finishing

I started writing my first book in mid-Feb 2023. By the end of February, I had my first chapter and the book outline. In the next 2 weeks, I had 4 chapters, or 50% of the book. And a month later, in April, I completed all 8 chapters. By early May, I had it reviewed by a copywriter and by early June, I had a title and draft cover. A fantastic start and progress - I was *nearly* done with my first book in ~4 months!

But the last 10% was the hardest. I ran into a few pesky formatting issues with Kindle that I couldn’t figure out.  I wasn’t happy with the book cover and had a dispute with the illustrator. I started a part-time contracting project, in addition to my startup. I was also hosting my parents for the summer. I was exhausted at the end of the day and week. 

I made no progress in July, August, and September. I started convincing myself that it wasn’t a worthy or aligned project. I almost gave up and moved on. 

Luckily, my friend Preet, who regularly checked in on my book progress and reviewed my early drafts, was getting tired of my excuses. After a call where I shared my latest set of excuses, he sent me a text: 

That nudge got me back up on the horse. In a day, I had the PDF published to Gumroad. In a couple of days, I had 5 purchases. By the end of the week, I had figured out the Kindle issues (it turned out to be a rather easy fix) and published to Kindle. By the end of October, I had 150+ purchases, many 5-star reviews, and tons of appreciation & congrats from friends, colleagues, and family. Most importantly, I relished the satisfaction of having completed the project and published my first book!

Discussing ideas is easy, starting projects is usually fun, and finishing them is the hardest. Finishing requires endurance, discipline, and grit.

But finishing is all that matters. We appreciate and value the greatest artists, scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, leaders, friends, and colleagues for what they finished, not what they started. We also personally gain, emotionally and financially, mostly from finished projects.

All the glory lies behind the finish line. 

Notes 

1. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for abandoning what you started. Maybe you learned something that changed your mind, maybe the book isn’t as good, etc. In those cases, it’s okay to cut your losses. But if this is a repeating pattern, you may be tricking yourself, like I almost did. 

2. Because of this principle, I have become more judicious in selecting the projects I start, which is mostly for the good. I don’t sign up for a habitual thing (like a fitness activity) unless I think I can do it for 10 years and I don’t start a project until I’m convinced it’s meaningful and exciting to me. 

3. Sometimes more ambitious projects are easier to finish because they are more meaningful and there’s more at stake. But I think setting early milestones and MVPs are crucial for motivation and learning. Before you start a restaurant host a dinner party and a pop up booth at a farmers’ market. 

4. I believe broadly sharing what you’re doing before you finish saps your motivation, as you are stealing the reward before delivering the result.