Everyone's looking for the secret. The productivity hack. The growth hack. The success formula. Meanwhile, the people actually doing things have figured out the only hack that matters: they started.

The GitHub Founders Just Started Coding

When GitHub launched, version control was a nightmare. The founders didn't spend months researching the market. They didn't write a business plan. They didn't raise money. They started building something they wanted to use.

Their first commit was terrible. The site was ugly. It barely worked. But it existed. And because it existed, they could improve it. Because they could improve it, it became GitHub. Because it became GitHub, Microsoft bought it for $7.5 billion.

If they had waited until they knew how to build the perfect version control platform, they'd still be waiting.

Why Starting Beats Planning

The brain is terrible at predicting what will actually happen. Airbnb's founders thought they were building a way for people to rent air mattresses during conferences. They started anyway. The market taught them they were actually building a global hospitality platform.

Twitter was a podcasting company called Odeo. They started building a side project for internal communication. That side project became Twitter. The podcasting company died. The thing they started without thinking too hard about it became worth billions.

Instagram started as Burbn, a check-in app like Foursquare. Too complicated. They stripped it down to just photos. If they had spent two years perfecting Burbn, there would be no Instagram.

Starting reveals what planning can't predict.

The Dropbox MVP Was a Video

Drew Houston had an idea for Dropbox. The "right" way to validate it would be months of research, surveys, focus groups. Instead, he made a video showing how it would work. Not the product—just a video of the product that didn't exist yet.

That video got 75,000 signups overnight. From a product that was literally just a video. He started with what he could start with. The video proved people wanted it. Then he built it.

Most people would have said "I can't start until I can build the full product." Drew started with a video. Starting with something beats planning for everything.

Writers Who Write vs Writers Who Plan

Every November, hundreds of thousands of people do NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month. They write 50,000 words in 30 days. Most of it is garbage. But it exists.

Meanwhile, millions of people have been "planning to write a novel" for decades. They're waiting for the perfect idea. The perfect opening line. The perfect time. They have elaborate outlines. Character backstories. World-building documents. Zero actual novels.

The NaNoWriMo writers have something to edit. The planners have something to plan. Guess who's more likely to eventually publish a book?

The Physics of Starting

Starting creates momentum. Momentum makes continuing easier than stopping. This is actual physics applied to projects.

When SpaceX started, Elon Musk didn't know how to land rockets. He started anyway. The first rocket failed. The second failed. The third failed. But each failure taught something that planning couldn't have revealed. By starting, he created momentum. By maintaining momentum, he reached Mars capability.

If he had waited until he knew how to land rockets, SpaceX wouldn't exist. The knowledge came from starting, not the other way around.

Why Your Standards Are Holding You Back

High standards are great for improving. They're terrible for beginning. Most people's taste is better than their ability. They know what good looks like, and they know they can't produce it yet. So they don't start.

This is backwards. You can't improve what doesn't exist. You can iterate on garbage. You can't iterate on nothing.

Stripe's first payment API was apparently held together with "digital duct tape." The Collison brothers knew it wasn't good enough. They launched it anyway. Now Stripe processes hundreds of billions in payments. They started bad and got better. Starting bad beats not starting.

Silicon Valley's Perfect Launch Myth

Silicon Valley loves the story of the perfect launch. The Steve Jobs reveal. The perfectly crafted product. The flawless execution. This myth stops more companies than competition does.

Facebook started at one college. If Zuckerberg had waited until he could launch at every college simultaneously, there would be no Facebook. He started at Harvard. Then added schools one by one. Starting small enabled growing big.

Amazon started selling books. Just books. If Bezos had waited until he could sell everything, Amazon wouldn't exist. He started with books because he could start with books. The everything store came later.

Starting Reveals the Real Problems

People think they know what the hard parts will be. They're wrong. Starting reveals the actual problems, which are never what anyone expected.

WhatsApp's founders thought the hard part would be building the app. The hard part was actually handling millions of simultaneous connections. They only discovered this by starting and growing. If they had spent years preparing for the wrong problems, they would have built the wrong solutions.

The Airbnb founders thought trust would be the issue—strangers in homes. The real issue was photography. Homes photographed badly didn't rent. They discovered this by starting, not by thinking.

What Happens When You Start

When someone starts, several things happen:

They learn what actually works versus what they think might work. They attract people who want to help with things that exist, not ideas that might exist. They create something to improve instead of something to plan. They generate data instead of assumptions.

But most importantly: they become someone who starts things. This identity shift matters more than any single project.

Why Next Week Never Comes

"I'll start next week when I have more time." "I'll start next month when I have more money." "I'll start next year when I have more experience."

Next week there's the same amount of time but more obligations. Next month there's the same amount of money but more expenses. Next year there's the same experience plus another year of not starting.

The perfect time is a myth. The only time that exists is now.

The Two-Minute Start

Can't start your company? Register the domain. Can't write your book? Write one paragraph. Can't launch your product? Create a landing page. Can't quit your job? Update your resume.

Make starting so small it's impossible to fail. The domain might become a company. The paragraph might become a book. The landing page might become a product. The resume might become freedom.

Or they might not. But they exist. And things that exist can become other things. Things that don't exist can only remain nothing.

People Who Start vs People Who Don't

There are two types of people: those who start and those who don't.

The starters have bad first drafts, embarrassing early versions, failed attempts. They also have finished projects, real experience, and actual results.

The non-starters have perfect plans, brilliant ideas, and flawless strategies. They also have nothing to show for it.

The gap between these groups isn't talent, resources, or luck. It's the willingness to begin before ready.

Starting Is Not Committing

Starting doesn't mean you can't stop. Starting doesn't mean you can't pivot. Starting doesn't mean you've chosen your final destination.

Starting means you've chosen to move. Movement reveals options that standing still never will.

Twitter's founders started a podcasting company. They kept moving and found Twitter. Slack's team started a game company. They kept moving and found Slack. Movement revealed what planning couldn't.

The Fear Points the Way

Whatever someone's afraid to start probably matters to them. If it didn't matter, they wouldn't be afraid.

Everyone's afraid before starting. Some people start anyway. The fear doesn't go away—they just start moving and the fear becomes fuel.

Just Start

Stop reading about starting. Stop planning to start. Stop preparing to start. Stop waiting for permission to start.

Open a new document. Register that domain. Send that email. Write that first line of code. Record that video. Make that call.

It will be bad. It will be wrong. It will need to be fixed. That's fine.

Bad and started beats good and imaginary every time.

Starting is the hack. Not a morning routine. Not a productivity app. Not a framework.

Just starting.

What are you starting today?