Minimum viability

A common driver of irrational decision-making is “all-or-nothing” thinking. And it’s more pervasive than most people realize. 

You can become an entrepreneur by quitting your job or not at all.
You can read the entire book or not a single page. 
You can eat the whole slice of cake or none of it.

When you’re entangled in all-or-nothing thinking, you only see absolutes. Everything is black or white. Your choices are binary. 

Novice entrepreneurs are often victims of all-or-nothing thinking when they start developing their first products. They convince themselves they must build the entire product before they’ll be able to launch their service, bring on customers, or start making money. 

To combat this type of thinking, the startup world developed a concept of a “minimum viable product” (or MVP). The MVP is the least robust product an entrepreneur needs to build to test whether his or her startup assumptions are valid. 

MVPs help entrepreneurs break out of all-or-nothing thinking and make meaningful progress on their product. And that early progress becomes a huge source of extra motivation. It creates small wins that build momentum and confidence.

Next time you catch yourself battling an all-or-nothing mirage, try repurposing and applying this concept of minimum viability. It might lead you to a more rational choice.