Getting Real: Chapter 6

“Paralysis through analysis” is a phrase I stumbled on the 6th chapter of Getting Real in which I think is very familiar. No, not the phrase but the concept of it. We all encountered this one way or the other.

While we were told to join the Imagine Cup, I was hesitant, why? because I know, and I know I’m sure, that there will be analysis involved. Why do I hate it so much? If I didn’t drink enough coffee today, I’ll answer that with “NONE OF YOUR  BUSINESS!” but don’t be afraid, I had a cup so I’ll gladly answer that with a reasonable one, “It takes the most time than other development phases” am I correct?

Now we have three (3) proposal papers we have to finish within a month, Yea you heard it right!

Am I upset about it? No.    Am I excited? No.

But I am concerned. Concerned because we might not finish it and if we did, we might not be alive.

Worried about my precious little life, what I do is that I engaged myself with what I call “rough work” which to my surprise, explained in the chapter, or at least the idea of it. Here’s what I do: I ask my groupmates what they think should the program be. I cross out what I think we cannot do with the contraints. I cross out what I think is not necessary. I cross out those hated extras. That’s it.

I have to admit, they don’t admire that in me but I admire that to myself because I got the guts to cross out everything I THINK is too much for us and nonsense so instead of an award winning kite, I get the simplest diamond-shaped kite out there — that can still fly. I get the juice not the whole orange.

What happened in the Imagine Cup? We took the proposal template and put there our strained ideas and fortunately, the monster came out with a ribbon — the Philippine Prairie Watch. What we did was a lot of thinking because of the theme that we had to consider but at the same time, we crossed out EVERYTHING that is unnecessary for the program to work. This made our lives much easier — in that process only.

Let me leave you guys with a quote I personally like from this chapter. Hope you learn something from it because I know I did.

Accept that decisions are temporary. Accept that mistakes will happen and realize it’s no big deal as long as you can correct them quickly. Execute, build momentum, and move on.

Ciao!