Make it exist first

Starting even a small project is usually not the hardest part. The real challenge is finishing it. We begin with energy, vision, and strong motivation. We imagine how great the final result will be. But very quickly, our expectations grow. What was supposed to be simple becomes more complex. We add new features, improve the design, rethink the structure. And instead of progress, we create pressure.

As developers and professionals, we often want things to be “right” from the beginning. Clean architecture. Perfect UI. Scalable solution. Optimized performance. We raise the bar higher and higher. The problem is that perfection delays completion. Many good ideas never see the light of day because they are not “good enough” yet.

Over time, we collect unfinished work. Side projects. Drafts. Domains bought but unused. Repositories with only initial commits. Our “project drawer” becomes full. Each unfinished idea reminds us of something we started but did not complete. It is not a lack of skill. It is often a lack of permission to start small.

Make it exist first, you can make it good later.

— Adam Grant

This simple rule changed my approach. After nine years of keeping only a temporary placeholder page for my personal website, I finally decided to just publish something basic. Not perfect. Not fully designed. Just real. And once it existed, improving it became natural. The hardest step was not building it. The hardest step was allowing it to be simple at the beginning.