Aiming Directly at the Goal is the Slowest Path to It

I've been learning golf. At first, I showed up at the driving range, put the ball down, chose a flag in the distance, and swung. Half the time, I didn't hit the ball. When I did, it never went where I was aiming.

The most frustrating part wasn't the misses themselves. It was feeling like each swing was random and I wasn't improving from practice.

Then I got a coach. The first thing we did was break things down. That's when I started seeing systematic, compounding progress.

For a good shot in golf, so many small things need to be just right. You can't improve them all at once. So you don't try to. You pick one to improve during a practice round. Make visible progress on it. Move to the next.

Now replace the golf swing with your startup

Replace "hit far and straight consistently" with "reach $1M ARR." The dimensions:

• Is there a real customer problem?
• Can you identify the specific customers who have it, not a generic profile, a real one?
• Does your product solve it?
• Can you make enough money doing so that this is a business?
• Can you do it repeatedly, at scale?

Some founders I work with are already hiring a sales team before they know what they're selling or to whom. Others are debating which marketing channels to scale. They're optimizing for stage five while they're still on stage one.

Optimizing for signal vs. optimizing for revenue

Putting something out to get signal is valid. Hugely valuable, even. But ask yourself: are you optimising for getting signal, or are you trying to get revenue?

If you're optimizing for signal, you make progress whether what you're trying succeeds or fails. If you're aiming directly at revenue, you only make progress when you get lucky. And when it doesn't work, which is most of the time, you've spent energy and learned nothing.

Same action, different intent. Completely different outcomes.

The question isn't "am I moving fast enough?" It's "am I optimizing for the stage I am actually on?"