What an 8 year-old Knitting a Sweater Taught Me about Launching a Product

What can an 8 year-old knitting a sweater possibly teach you about launching a product?

Read on.

There was an 8 year-old that I knew once upon a time whom for random reasons I thought about the other day. She was a curious, talkative girl and in grade 3 was really enthusiastic about a knitting lunch club her teacher started. She didn’t know much about knitting except for what she had seen her Mom do on occasion yet she was completely fascinated by the idea of creating something from a few strands of yarn and having an end-product of a beautiful sweater.

The teacher gave them the pattern, yarn, needles and all the materials to start.
They were instructed to knit square patches in a variety of colours which would then be sewn by the teacher into the final sweater. They would meet once a week during the lunch period where the teacher would provide additional guidance, tips and help.

There was only one caveat-the patches needed to be completed by a certain date in order to have the sweaters ready to present at a school assembly.

The 8 year-old worked furiously, knitting in all her spare time. She could envision herself in that beautiful sweater that she would wear with a sense of accomplishment knowing she had made it from start to finish.

And she did it. Over the course of the 3 months, the young girl worked away at her patches and got the teacher’s help whenever she was met with any challenges. Each week the pile of patches grew steadily until the day finally came when she was ready to assemble her sweater. She beamed with excitement and pride when she finally got to put on the sweater and show it off to her friends and classmates.

She had done it! She had turned those balls of yarn into a beautiful finished product.

Focus, dedication, commitment, and perseverance paid off.

Little did she know at the time the valuable lessons she had learned would be ones she would one day reflect back on.

I know..because I was that 8 year old 🙂

So..what can be learned from all of this?

Start

Starting is the first important step. You may not know everything or have everything in place but you will learn as you go. It may seem kind of obvious but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t actually get past this part. They get stuck at the starting line.

Be Specific & Work Towards a Goal

It is easy to get carried away and think you can do everything or even need to do everything. Picking too many things to start will most likely prevent you from a) starting or b) finishing. So be very specific about what it is you set out on doing.

In this case, the goal was the final product of a sweater. It was very specific and I knew what I needed to do to get to the get goal->knit patches. Your goal may be writing that ebook you’ve always wanted or finally narrowing in on that niche. Or maybe it is starting a blog? Picking your website designer? Getting started on social media?  Pick!

Seek out help/resources

You may know everything you need to get your product or service launched. Or you may not. The thing is you don’t have to know everything…ask for help. Research on the good old ‘net. Either way don’t let this stop you from getting your work out in the world!

Have a Deadline

Having a deadline is important. Too often we have moving targets which prevent us from committing and sticking to it. Pick a date and work towards it. And stick to that date.

Accountability

Deadlines are great but if we don’t actually tell anyone it’s easy to fall off track. Accountability partners are great for that..they can provide guidance and be that gentle (or not so gentle) poke when you need it. Don’t have one? How about making a public announcement on Facebook? Announcing that you have a project in the works with a fixed deadline may be the first step. Also something about making it public makes it so much more real.

Visualize Success

Picture yourself with the final product in your hands or using the skill you are hoping to learn. Research shows that the brain cannot tell the difference between a real and an imagined action so by visualizing yourself successfully doing something the stimulation in your brain (and subsequent chemical reactions) is no different than actually having done it. Win! You’re able to train your brain and convince it (and yourself) that you can (and will) do it.

Do the Work

So you’ve picked a specific area to work on, found resources to help you, picked a deadline and announced it to the world. Now you must commit and do the work. Carve out the time to spend on your project each day/week and in no time you will have yourself a new skill/ebook/niche/website or whatever it was that you set out to do. Go for it!

And there you have it- 7  things you can learn about launching from an 8 year-old knitting a sweater.

Anything to add? W ould love to hear your thoughts!