MSME DIGEST With Kola Owolabi
Don’t Wait for the Perfect Start: Learn from the False Start
Have you ever watched a 100-metre, 200-metre or 400-metre race closely? If you have, you will notice something interesting about the beginning of the race. Before the runners are allowed to go, there is intense concentration. Every athlete is positioned in the starting blocks, muscles tensed, eyes fixed ahead, waiting for the starting gun.
Then suddenly, BANG!
They shoot out of the blocks.
But sometimes, one of the athletes moves a fraction of a second too early. The race is stopped. It is called a false start.
Now, here is an interesting lesson for entrepreneurs.
Experienced athletes understand that the beginning of a race is extremely important. You cannot afford to sleep at the starting blocks and expect to catch everybody later. In a short-distance race, the athlete who gets out of the blocks fastest has a significant advantage. If he gets the early momentum and maintains it, the others may never catch up.
This is exactly how it works in business.
Your idea may be excellent, but if you are too slow in taking it to the market, somebody else may get there before you.
Many entrepreneurs spend months, or even years, perfecting an idea. They want the perfect product, the perfect packaging, the perfect office, the perfect website, the perfect business plan, the perfect funding and the perfect economic environment.
Meanwhile, somebody with an idea that is only 70 percent ready has already entered the market.
And guess what?
The market begins teaching that person what customers actually want.
That is why I believe entrepreneurs should learn the lesson of the false start.
A false start, properly understood, is not necessarily failure. It can be an early attempt that gives you information. You discover what works, what does not work, what customers like, what they reject and what needs to be changed.
The wise entrepreneur does not necessarily wait until everything is perfect. He gets moving, observes the market and adjusts.
Think about some of the world’s most successful companies. Apple, Microsoft and Amazon did not become dominant by sitting permanently in the starting blocks waiting for certainty. They entered markets, learned, improved, innovated and continued to move.
More recently, OpenAI, through ChatGPT, moved very quickly into the public generative-AI market. That early visibility and adoption created enormous momentum, while many competitors subsequently entered a race that was already underway.
The lesson is not that the first company to market always wins. It doesn’t. Sometimes the pioneer fails and a later entrant becomes the winner.
The lesson is that speed creates opportunity.
There is another important point here. Athletes do not deliberately want to be disqualified. The objective is to get the fastest legitimate start possible. Entrepreneurs should think the same way.
I am not suggesting that you rush blindly into the market without research, planning or consideration of risk. That would be reckless. Rather, I am saying that your research and planning should help you enter the market intelligently and quickly, not become an excuse for endless delay.
If you have developed a prototype, test it.
If you have developed a service, offer it to a small group of customers.
If you have written an app, put it in the hands of users.
If you have invented something, demonstrate it to potential buyers.
If you have a business idea, start talking to prospective customers.
Let the market become your laboratory.
This is because ideas are validated in the market, not in brainstorming sessions.
You can sit in an air-conditioned office for six months and debate whether customers will buy your product. Or you can put a simple version of the product in front of ten potential customers and get answers in a few days.
The market may tell you something your feasibility study did not anticipate.
It may tell you that your price is wrong.
It may tell you that your packaging needs improvement.
It may reveal an entirely different customer segment.
It may even show you that the problem you thought you were solving is not the real problem—but that there is another, much bigger problem customers desperately want solved.
That information is gold.
The entrepreneur who enters the market early begins accumulating this knowledge while the entrepreneur who is still “preparing” is accumulating paperwork.
Remember the sprinter.
When the gun goes off, there is no more time to adjust your starting position. The race has begun.
In entrepreneurship, the market is already running.
Your competitors are running.
Your potential customers are making choices.
Technology is changing.
New opportunities are emerging.
So, if you have a viable idea, do not remain permanently in the starting blocks.
Prepare intelligently. Start small if necessary. Test the market. Learn from your mistakes. Improve the product. Adjust your strategy. Then accelerate.
You may not win because you started first, but you certainly cannot win a race you never properly start.
Don’t delay your market approach for anything. Your big idea deserves a chance in the marketplace.
And remember: the market, not your brainstorming session is the ultimate validator of your idea.
Kola Owolabi is a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants of Nigeria. His company, David Solomon Consulting, a foremost business plan preparation consulting firm, operates out of Igbesa, near Crawford University, Ogun State. He can be reached at 08023203198 ( WhatsApp line)
