5 Advantages of a Makeshift Strategy That Will Elevate You Above ‘Waiters’

The first flight was nothing but makeshift. The first try to fly to the moon used a makeshift approach and improved upon it until they got it right. The list is endless. The first bottle of coke, the first iPhone, the first personal computer, the first telephone and so on.

We can always get better and that is the very reason why we need to get started. The idea of waiting for perfection before we launch has seen very many people get disillusioned. It is for this reason that I think that if we adopted a “makeshift” strategy with our pursuits we will be much better off than waiting.

“In life, motion is currency”

lawrence namale

In life, motion is currency. I know that people will dispute that so let me try again. The person who is using “makeshift strategies” to get going is far much better than the person who is waiting for all the bells and whistles of his idea to be in place before they start moving.

The following are some of the few advantages that will accrue when you go makeshift instead of waiting.

1. Growth in installments

The greatest friend in your pursuit in life is growth. Growth starts from basic forms and levels to complex forms and levels. That’s why you need to cherish starting out with your makeshift strategy. This is much better than sitting back and waiting.

“The Greatest Friend in your pursuit in life is growth”

LAWRENCE ANAMLE

The person who is in motion is always going to be guaranteed of growth and improvement…and the lessons learnt through the growing process are weaved back into the makeshift strategy to make it better. The person who is waiting for growth before they get started will lose out on the beautiful advantage of incremental improvement.

2. Getting noticed

When you put up a makeshift shop, obviously people will get to notice you. In fact, people will start to associate you with your craft, albeit makeshift. Obviously some will hate it, others will make fun of it, others might flat out ignore you. However, you can never go wrong with being noticed.

I kid you not: the person who is in a makeshift mode is a thousand times better than the person who is sitting back and waiting for perfection to come before they can do anything. In today’s world, you get noticed incrementally. Of course there is a lot of noise out there and you had better be part of it than not.

As already stated, when you have a makeshift strategy, the inevitable is that you will start growing. Again, with every incremental improvement, people notice. Consequently, people start seeing your dedication, commitment, consistency and momentum and they finally trust what you are doing. These benefits can never accrue if you are doing nothing, waiting for perfection to come.

3. Longevity

The person who has been in it for long is perhaps better than the person who has just started out. There is the benefit of age. They say that wine gets better with age and so is the person who started early, albeit applying the makeshift strategy to it.

I would rather start with the little that I have not and trudge along for years than wait for years to get ready and start. The longer I am in the trade even though it is makeshift, the better. There are other things that I am accruing through longevity that I will never get through waiting. These include partnerships, networks and as already mentioned above, recognition. Longevity is a strong currency.

4. Failure and experience

Will Rogers is accredited to have said: Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Perhaps the person who is waiting to start wants to avoid as much ‘bad judgment’ and failure as possible.

On the contrary the person who gets started today with a makeshift strategy gets the benefit of failing and failing until they form good judgment. It is folly to think that experience will come when you do nothing. It is even more folly to think that you will sit back and wait for others to fail and learn from them.

The best lessons you can ever learn are learnt first-hand, especially if you are not reinventing the wheel.

5. Niche-testing

Makeshift strategy helps you to early on attract a niche market for your startup or whatever it is that you are doing. You get to interact with that market and start testing your solution to them even if it is makeshift. Some will give you advice on what you need to change. Others will start becoming loyal to you and always looking forward to what you will produce.

You can never get this wonderful benefit if you wait until you are perfect before you launch.

The fact of the matter is that we can always get better. In fact, even if you waited for the bells and whistles and then got started, you will realize that you can always improve on them. Therefore, the person who implemented the makeshift strategy is better preferred than the one who wasted time waiting.

The Place For Excellence

Now, a makeshift strategy doesn’t necessarily mean that you are churning out substandard products. It shouldn’t be so. In today’s world of Do It Yourself (DIY) tricks all over the internet as well as a plethora of ‘experts’ in their various niches, you have no excuse to be substandard.

Things can be done using the makeshift strategy by employing both DIY and consultation from experts within your circles. If you look at any major corporation today, you realize that their first version of their product has been improved upon a thousand times by now.

How Makeshift Looks Like

1. Functional

A makeshift strategy helps you to church out what works in the most basic way probably without the bells and the whistles. You can use your phone to record a podcast. It’s functional enough even though it might not have the bells and whistles of a full podcasting kit for instance. However, people get to listen to you as you wait to upgrade.

2. Excellent

If you are to implement a makeshift strategy, you use the available technology and environment to do the absolute best that you can at that moment in time. Probably you do not have the funds to pay a graphics designer, but you can use available platforms such as canva to create a poster or a logo.

In other words, you try as much as you can to put your heart into it and as you grow, you can employ someone to spruce it up.

4. Improvised

Well, that’s the crux of this post. If you don’t have an excellent camera to shoot your reel or video, use your phone. If you don’t have a podcasting kit, use your phone. If you don’t have a self-hosted website, you use WordPress. If you don’t have a car, you use a bicycle. If you don’t have a bicycle, you walk.

“If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward”

—Martin Luther King Jnr.

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