I’m gonna pre-apologize right now. Cause this post from Sun Yi’s Instagram is so accurate, it hurts.

Let’s say I want to buy a house in Portugal. It’s been a lifelong dream and I finally feel like I’m in a place in my life where it could reasonably happen soon.

I’m absolutely not jumping on a plane and flying to Lisbon and buying the first house I see.

I’m going to read up on the rules of international house buying. Join an online ex pat community and listen in for advice on fun neighborhoods. Talk to my family.

Then – and this is THE MOST IMPORTANT PART – I’m going to start a conversation with a real estate agent in Porto. That’s when it gets real. And that’s the step we put off.

Because there’s always more research to be done. Another influencer with the one tiny tip that’ll make or break you – better keep scrolling. Right?

Honey, you’ll scroll your whole life away.

The difference between being a wantrepreneur and an entrepreneur is in the balance you strike between researching and doing.

Stop researching and go get a client.

How?

How does anyone get clients? You sell yourself. Talk about your work. Reach out to people who need your services.

That’s when it gets real.

Real scary.

“I want to be an entrepreneur, but I’m scared it won’t work. I’m scared I can’t do it.”

For reals. Those are true legitimate feelings that don’t fully go away, ever. It IS scary.

Now that we’ve settled that, can you view fear as that annoying colleague down the hall and just do your work anyway? Todd in Accounting as been training you for this for years.

There’s just no other way around it. Put yourself out there and focus on getting clients first. You’ll figure out everything else as you go.

“I don’t know what steps are involved – better read yet another CEO’s book.”

Everyone’s path is going to look differently but the one thing you can trust is that, once you start walking, the next step will be revealed to you.

I had just a couple clients under my belt when a prospective and I were emailing back and forth and she said “This sounds great. Do you have a website I can show to my team members?”

No ma’am I do not. But I’ll have one up tomorrow.

The next step shows up at your feet if you just get started.

You build it as you fly.

“I need a lot more experience first.”

Um, how do you think you get experience? You have to go get clients.

You might be thinking, who wants to work with someone so new? You wouldn’t want a surgeon on their first surgery, would you?

I don’t know about that. The best cleaning I ever got was from a dental hygienist who had just graduated. She was well-researched – no one could know more about the most current best practices. And her freshness made her sooooooo careful and detailed.

Listen, your experience will perfectly match someone’s budget. Just go find your someone.

So yes, of course, you need to do some research. But instead of thinking that there’s a research phase and then a doing phase, think about researching and doing simultaneously, back and forth, onward. Both at the same time.

If you want to actually reach those big dreams – that house in Portugal, that business empire, that award-winning YouTube channel – you have to switch to DO mode. Contact the real estate agent, connect to your first client, make your initial video.

Yeah, the first one will suck. So get it out of the way as fast as you can.

So, what’s the next big thing you want to do? The thing you’ve had your heart on but haven’t actually *done* yet? Hit me up for a little pep talk.