What’s your Greatest Asset?

February 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment

I had a thought today whilst I was walking to my second usability test with the incredibly helpful Jason Frame of Magic Lamp (the first was with the equally wonderful Gavin Montague of Left Brained). I thought I’d quickly share it with you.

It came out of my musing what I can leverage to help bring Lapsus to market. I was off with a cold for much of the last 2 weeks and the pace of development has slowed to a crawl. I really worry that I won’t be able to even make the May deadline I’ve set myself for the Beta. I just seem to be going so very slowly.

What’s the worst that could happen?

I think my worst fear is that I’ll run out of money before I get to charge for Lapsus. And I definitely don’t want to work my way through all my savings. What am I going to do if I get to May and it’s nowhere near ready? What happens if it runs further than this and all my money runs out?

Then I realised – I was assuming that my savings were my biggest asset. If they were gone, I was working on the notion that I couldn’t develop Lapsus any more and the dream would be dead. The more I thought about this, the more it just didn’t hold water. Let’s say, worst case scenario, I launch version 1 horribly late then no-one buys for ages. Say all my money runs out. What would I do?

Assuming the business case for Lapsus is sound (and the more people I speak to, the more this seems to true), and I can eventually release it, eventually it will start to make a little money. And in the meantime, I’ll have enough experience to get a job as a 9-5 coder to cover my bills. Then the rather obvious truth hit me.

My Greatest Asset is Me

All these worries – running out of money, having to get a job – are totally irrelevant. I’m so committed now I can’t back out. I’m really excited about the prospect of Lapsus existing. So it will happen eventually. And when it does it’s going to be awesome.

My greatest asset is not time or money – it’s me. It’s my skills (limited though they are). It’s my excitement and passion for the product. It’s my ability to spend 6 years thinking obsessively about the same project whilst not losing enthusiasm for it.

The Bottom Line

In business, you need to care for your assets or they don’t serve you well. If my greatest asset is myself, that makes eating cheap, unhealthy food seem very foolish. It shows why obsessive worrying that keeps me awake and exhausted is a really bad idea.

If my biggest asset is me, my biggest priority should be caring for myself. And that will help me to get Lapsus to market faster.

A Question

What would you do differently if you believed your greatest asset was you?

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