Treat Side Projects Like Experiments

Treat Side Projects Like Experiments

Taking on a new side project can be a little scary. After all, the chances of failure are pretty high, and dealing with failure is never fun. That said, 99U points out that one way around this fear is to treat your side projects like experiments.

Picture: Steve Jurvetson

The reason is very simple. When we picture something as an experiment, we’re OK with it failing. So, from the get-go, you’re priming your brain to handle the possibility for failure. 99U explains why this works:

To get over my own fear of failure with them, I started picturing these ideas as simply being experiments. Experiments don’t “fail” — they simply prove or disprove a hypothesis. For example, despite my day job as a designer I had the hypothesis that I could also write an e-book. I then simply started writing. I didn’t focus on the outcome, how the book would be received or what others would think of it. I figured, “let’s give this a try”.

It’s certainly an interesting approach, and if you have fears that keep you from starting up side projects then this is certainly a way of dealing with that. Head over to 99U for a nice collection of tips for dealing with that fear and breaking your projects into experiments.

Make Your Side Projects Wildly Successful: Treat Them Like Experiments [99U]


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