You have heard the expression “getting your ducks in a row.” It refers to the desire to get things organized or aligned before taking some action. I heard Seth Godin recently talk about “keeping frogs in a bowl.” He was proposing that it was more accurate than getting ducks in a row, since for most of us, the things that we are hoping to align before taking action aren’t exactly in our control. They are as unruly as trying to keep frogs in a bowl. Most action doesn’t need to wait until ducks are in rows and don’t require all the frogs to be in the bowl. We need a new animal analogy.
What animal doesn’t wait for all the information but rather does what they know to do, as soon as they know to do it and figures the rest out in a process of failing forward and failing fast? They are my new hero.