Putting Down the Pencils

I interviewed Brian Dally of Groundfloor on my podcast a few shows back and there was one moment in the show that jumped out at me. Here’s the quote from Brian:

“I think the moment that most people have to get to… I think it’s a really hard moment…You have to decide as co-founders to put your pencils down on other projects and just do the project that you’re working on. The problem is, most people think it works the other way, that ‘You know what I’m going to work on this part time, and we both are, and once we see that we get a little traction, or once we get that first customer or once we have a little revenue or have that first investor, then we’ll do it ourselves full time.’ That’s not how it works. The only way to create equity value at the beginning is commitment. That’s all there is.”

If you’re anything like me, this is like a punch in the gut. I love to keep my options open, I love to have at least three paths I can take at any given time. But if I look back at when I’ve been most successful in building something of value, whether at a company I owned or inside another company, it’s always been that I’ve made the commitment to live or die with the path I’ve chosen.

This was such great advice that I felt like I needed to call specific attention to it for those who’d not had a chance to listen to the interview.

What do you need to put down your pencil on?