A long lived wise master once said "Do or do not, there is no try." Many people already know who this wise master is. I am referring to Yoda, a Jedi master from Star Wars. Today's society encourages people to try. When we look at what people say and what people mean, most actually are saying the same thing as Yoda. Nike said it best "Just do it."
Pottery
What does it actually look for you to try or to do? It can be simple, throw some paint on a canvas or piece of paper; open the new word document and start typing; find someone to show you how to do it; step out side and take the first step. There is a story of a pottery class that allowed the class to take two different approaches to how they would be graded. The first group would only be graded on only the first project they completed, and the second group was graded on the volume of projects they complete. The first group spend hours, days, weeks studding best techniques, best material, optimal spin speed, and all the technicalities of spinning pottery. The second group just started throwing clay on the spinning wheel and started making one project after another. At the end of the class both groups presented what they had made. The first group spent large amounts of time and effort to get the one perfect pottery project. The second group had dozens of projects completed of all varieties and qualities. Who do you think and the better pottery project at the end? The interesting finding from this was those that made more projects, of all varieties and qualities, ended up having the better projects at the end of the class. The second group didn't know all the techniques, terms, technical specs of spinning pottery, they instead learned how to feel the project and how to improve; which techniques worked for them; what their skills and preferences encouraged them to grow into. The point to this story is that you can spend all day learning, but until you try (do) you will never be able to accomplish what you set out for.
Success from failure
There are dozens of examples of those who just tried. You rarely hear about their failures, and only hear about successes. There is a popular business messaging tool that technically came from a failed company. Slack. Slack grew out of another business that they just couldn't sell enough of their product. They had built a custom messaging platform that worked great for them internally, but their main business just wasn't doing good, despite all the owners efforts to grow that business. As the struggling business was failing, they were trying to figure out what they could do and then they realized they had built a great messaging platform and decided to try selling it to others who needed a messaging platform. Slack was born. In your efforts to achieve one goal, you might find a solution you didn't know you needed or even had.
Keep it Simple
In my career in Information Technology, some of my best projects came from, "Why do we need to do it this way?" Or "I can make it easier." It was never the planned projects that were my successes, it was always the ones to make things better on the side. Sometimes you still need to do the boring tasks so that you can find the better solutions. This includes learning the basics of what you want to do, if you skip them, you might be missing something important that will make all the difference later in your journey. One of the basics I learned as I was starting my journey of becoming a programmer was two very simple tid bits. 1. If you have to use the word "and" to describe what you are making, it is too complicated and should be made smaller. 2. never use global variables. I know these might not make sense for some people but the principles are, keep it simple and maintainable. You don't have to have a complicated system to do everything, you just need small simple tasks that can be chained together to achieve the bigger goal. And the second point is similar, don't make something everyone can change, at some point it will bite you. Basically, have a system everyone can participate in, and the things everyone has access to should be set by you and never change, and every area can have their own way to manage things that you don't have to do it for everyone.
Do it
Scabbard Media, itself is an example of do. I took one media class in high school, I avoided English papers, and I really don't like being out in the world of social media as the one sharing. But I am taking everything I have watched people do and I am trying to emulate it and do. Yes the first handful of content shared, the shorts, full episodes, and posts might be rough, but I see it as a learning opportunity to 1. get practice, 2. learn how things work 3. see what people like. You might find something weird that by normal measurements you shouldn't do, but it might be the thing people like from you. Don't be afraid to try something new as you do what you have set out for. Remember what Yoda said "Do or Do not."
Image Credit:
Yoda Photo: https://www.starwars.com/databank/yoda
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