Do or dance

The start-up scene is all about dancing. Doing isn’t sexy. You can’t do at a drinks reception. You can only dance.

Dancing is yapping about what you’re going to do. It’s giving you and your business partner sweet titles. It’s printing impressive business cards. It’s an incorporation party. ^[1] It’s celebrating the closure of an investment round. It’s “connecting”! It’s staffing-up. It’s TechCrunch. It’s a pretty conservative yet exciting set of financial projections! It’s an awesome holding page for an awesome stealth product. It’s a stellar advisory board. It’s entering start-up competitions! It’s a press release sent to any prick that’ll put your name in print.

Doing is coding. It’s selling. It’s revenue. It’s loss and profit. It’s failure and success. It’s stress. It’s joy. It’s responsibility. It’s working late and hard. It’s learning something about your strengths and weaknesses and those of your business. It’s progress. It’s the only thing worth starting a start-up for.

If you really must dance, make sure you do first.

^[1] I was actually at one of these. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like: they held a party to mark the registration of their company. I enjoyed the wine.