More of I think a lot about avoiding failure. I tell people where I work that I’m risk averse, sounds significantly better than I’m afraid of failure. Semantics make the rocking world go round.
The stupid thing is I know that I’m blah blah blah. I shouldn’t be worried. I’ve read books on the subject. I recently (within the last year, which is why I don’t have a link handy) read an article about the author’s challenge using their Arduino for the first time. I then recommended the article to others I know with that same particular challenge. I probably have even watched an episode of Donahue on the subject. I still can’t get past it on my personal life, which is laughable as at work I just do whatever needs doing.
Where I’m going with this, is I have an idea.
I’m afraid that I don’t know what I’m doing. This is out of my skill set.
I’ll plan and babystep in. I’ll start reading the literature, I’ll get parts. I’ll do some drawings.
I’ve got these parts, but I still don’t know enough.
I need more training, I should go back to school. If I start now I’ll just waste those parts, think about those three unfortunate transistors and two LEDs. Thankfully resistors are practically bullet proof.
If I don’t start, the parts are a waste. I bought stuff I’ll never use. If I don’t jump in, everything well be for naught.
Then I shouldn’t have bought them. To late to cry over that spilled milk. I should learn enough to not waste these parts, and then not dig myself this hole again. No parts unless I’m sure I know what I’m doing.
And that’s the crux, by instituting a policy of punishment for failure, it’s no wonder that my main failure is never starting. What if I change the discussion? I read about how people give themselves awards and recognition for a job well done. They share their successes in a group. They make a brag book. None of those, well maybe the certificates, sound appealing. I didn’t like elementary school enough to want to do it again.
This is where the idea comes in. Rather than stopping the cost analysis of all the bad choices I make, embrace it and add in the benefit. For reals, monetize my projects around the house. Let’s say I build the Wif a small printing press for $20, a project that is in progress, why shouldn’t I get to capitalize? If I can build something like This, which is $500+, than some percentage of savings is my profit.
This just means I need to better scope my projects, to do build lists and do spreadsheets. It’s not like I don’t do half of this anyway. The only exception I’ll allow is for my labour, which while horrible to do in the real business world, is fine for an unpaid internship with bonuses for success.
Real world example:
I’m making hard cider.
Rough cost to date:
one time
$50 bottles
$20 capper
$90 bucket, carboy, hydrometer, cane thing, siphon…
recurring
$1 sanitizer
$2 water
$25 apple juice
$3 yeast
$1
failed (ie fixed costs that will need to be redone later)
$15 worth of stuff that was supposed to become a cider press
Now then:
This means I have an equipment investment of roughly $160, a recurring cost of $32 and a loss of $15. A sixer of palatable cost being about $10(?) so for 5 gallons would be about $80. Overall them I’m rocking a loss on the first two batches and then a $50 profit per batch. Now all these numbers are quick and dirty, they don’t take into account bad batches, quality plus or minus, real estate, or opportunity costs.
But shouldn’t that be part of my cut? After I get into the black, I should get a percentage of the profit. Any failure is now just amortized over the life span of the project.
I like this.