Connecting The Dots of Healthcare

I’m working on a new project. But the nature of doing new things, changing myself and my business, is fraught with frustrations. Technical glitches, learning new applications, discovering differences between what you thought you had to do and what you actually needed to do are all part of the process of launching new products or services. Isn’t it always so? Change is always a challenge. But the reward of change is the elusive pursuit of progress. It’s almost always slower and more exasperating than predicted. But the sooner barriers are overcome, success not just more rapid, but the ultimate success is greater.

As a perfectionist, I learned long ago I tend to procrastinate. (Not that being a perfectionist is necessarily a bad thing for a surgeon.) But in business being a perfectionist, and procrastinating until I can “get it exactly right,” is deadly. It creates “analysis paralysis,” slows momentum, delays profit and, ultimately, slows delivery of value to customers. Especially future customers. Through my non-clinical business experiences, I’ve learned it’s best to push ahead with a “good” project than delay for a “perfect” project. The frustrations always first encountered with a 1.0 project’s learning curve are avoided on follow-up 2.0 projects. Been-there-done-that for subsequent 2.1 - X.0 projects reduce the time spent on the mechanics and allow subsequent modifications for overall improvement.When developing a new product or service, “good enough” is good enough for the first time if value is still delivered to a customer or client. Subsequent editions simply deliver even more value.

“But if I get it right the first time, I can order in bulk and save money in production costs.”

I’ve said just that. And I discovered two things:

•  It’s never “right” the first time.
•  The “savings” from a large first run are outweighed by boxes in the garage.

As soon as I’ve developed any new project, without fail, I can immediately see ways to improve it. But the “obvious” improvements after the first run, were only manifested after I sign my final check to pay for the first run. Paying a bit more for a small first run of anything, from business cards to new products is prudent.

Sure, cost savings are reaped on bulk orders, but with a new project or idea, it’s nice to discover problems on trial balloons to avoid having a collection of imperfect, publically unusable, materials taking up room in a garage because you pushed ahead with the 2.0 version anyway despite the surplus of 1.0’s.

“New and improved” rocks for subsequent runs. “New and improved” drives sales. Customers love “new and improved.”

Early adopters buying 1.0 are a small group compared to the majority of buyers who wait a bit before the bugs are worked out. How often have you rushed out to buy the latest Windows release? How often have you bought it and wished you waited a bit? (Can you spell Windows Millennium?)

Got an idea? Got a new product to develop? Got a new service to launch? Do it.