I have not been regular with my posts on this site because I have been learning a ton. That learning created delays in all my work. But I needed to finish this work, a Kickstarter for Effective Public Speaking, because it might change how I choose to write and publish in the future. While I hope it’s a successful Kickstarter, I need to learn from it. That means I needed to finish the work to launch it.
Delays Come in Many Shapes and Sizes
Because I am a seasoned project manager, I know about many kinds of delays. Here are just some:
- Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong will. And the corollary: At the worst possible time.
- Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.
- Parkinson’s Law: Work expands to fit the time allotted. (That occurs when people work alone and they do not feel pressure to do the next thing. Not because they are “bad,” but because there is no reward for doing the next thing.)
- The longer things take, the longer they will take. (If you know about the flow metrics, this is an example of lower throughput creating backlogs of aging work.)
I had all of these in my Kickstarter project. I learned a ton.
Can Delays Help Us Learn to Finish?
I normally don’t think about delays helping us finish anything. But I needed to change how I thought about these delays. It turns out that learning often follows the Satir Change model.
I wasn’t just going through one change. Instead, I had to explore several changes—at the same time—to finish this Kickstarter. (And yes, you know me. There’s an expletive in front of that word, Kickstarter.) Here are some of the explorations:
- How to create 3D images of my book covers. Yes, there are sites that will do that automatically. And then, I had to create the correctly sized image for Kickstarter. Thank goodness for a fellow writer, Tami Veldura, who told me to create a document in Affinity of the correct size so I could export it to be the right aspect ratio.
- How to create an AI clone of my voice. (I think that’s done, but I need to choose between two possible audiobook options.)
- I went with a less expensive cover designer this time. However, I incurred weeks of delay because of their turnaround time. I won’t do that again. (This is an example of Cost of Delay for waiting for other people.)
All of those delays helped me decide to apply myself and learn about images and more.
Learn for the Future
All of those delays helped me decide to be much less dependent on other people for my book publishing. (I’m not very dependent on other people for the writing. Up until now, I was dependent on others for the publishing.)
You are probably not a writer or publisher. Yet, these ideas can help you decide how to finish your projects:
- Are you procrastinating, as I was, to learn something new? Does your procrastination delay your finishing?
- How much is it worth it to you, to learn something new? (It might not be worth it. For me, it was.)
- How can you decide to use that learning, instead of denigrating yourself? (I could have told myself I was useless, etc. Instead, I focused on learning from this process.)
It’s too easy to say, “I’ll never learn that.” Instead, we need to use all of our adaptability and resilience to learn when we have delays or roadblocks. One small step at a time. Then, get some feedback, which is how we learn.
And my Kickstarter? I am very happy to announce it is in the pre-launch phase. Please see it here: https://www.jrothman.com/speakingkickstarter. Please do add yourself to the notification list. All that does is tell Kickstarter you allow them to send you an email when I launch. That notification is not a commitment to buy.
Will I do another Kickstarter in the future? Of course. I have learned a ton already from this one. And while I hope and expect it will fund, I will learn what worked and did not about this one.
And I am so happy to be back to much more writing!