The Parable of the Remote Control Doll (Just Ship It)

This morning my 7-year old daughter showed me a drawing that she did of a ‘remote control doll.'

Apparently this is what 7-year-old girls like to think about.

On one side of the page she drew a picture of the remote, complete with a viewing screen, speaker and microphone so she could talk through the doll.

On the reverse side of the page, she had a picture of the back of the doll with an outlet in her head (for charging my daughter told me).

Drawing of the ‘rumote cuncurll' Drawing of the doll. Notice the power outlet in the back of the doll's head for charging.

You'll notice that she's misspelled a lot of the words.

‘Rumote' instead of ‘remote.'

‘Toc' instead of ‘talk.'

‘Cis' instead of ‘kiss.'

At first I was troubled that my daughter who is 7 years old doesn't know how to spell simple words like ‘kiss' and ‘talk.'

Then I remembered that she's only 7 years old, and the way that she's going to learn to spell more words is by actually trying!

Interesting – the way we grow and progress is by actually doing stuff – even if we get it wrong!

Seth Godin writes about this concept and calls it ‘shipping' (refering to ‘shipping the product).

Here's an excerpt from a post that Seth Godin wrote talking about this:

Shipping is fraught with risk and danger. Every time you raise your hand, send an email, launch a product or make a suggestion, you're exposing yourself to criticism. Not just criticism, but the negative consequences that come with wasting money, annoying someone in power or making a fool of yourself. It's no wonder we're afraid to ship. It's not clear you have much choice, though. A life spent curled in a ball, hiding in the corner might seem less risky, but in fact it's certain to lead to ennui and eventually failure.

– Seth Godin

Where in your life or business are you holding back because you're afraid to ship something and get it out to the world?

Where in life or business are you figuratively curled up in a ball trying to avoid risk, but putting yourself on the path to failure?

Where in life do you have an idea, a project or a product that you need to ship?

Let's get after it today.

Enoch Bartlett Sears