Non-Ideal Start

Part 1

It happened on a completely ordinary Tuesday. I was sitting in a coffee shop with a friend who had managed to launch his own startup within a year. And me? I was still preparing.

I was studying marketing, building business plans, taking courses. I mentally rehearsed dozens of scenarios, and for each one — I drafted a new plan. Again and again. A mountain of written pages, and not a single real step.

“How’s it coming along?” he asked.

I unleashed my entire arsenal on him: a multi-layered strategy, a detailed competitor analysis, plans scheduled by quarter — for a year, maybe even two ahead.

He looked at me and said softly:

“You know what the difference between us is?”

I replied:

“No.”

“I’ve been earning money for six months. And you’re still preparing to start.”

Those words hit like a verdict. He was right. I had become a professional « Perfectionists”

Part 2

Let’s be honest. You feel it too, don’t you?

This book in your hands is no accident.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. You picked up this book because you’re looking for a way out. You’re tired — not just of failures, but of yourself. Of that version of you who constantly postpones real life for later.

You’re tired of:

Endless to-do lists that never get done. They only remind you of your inadequacy, turning into a daily reproach.

Ideas that remain just ideas. You see their bright spark, and then only the ashes of “what if” and “what a pity.”

The feeling that life is passing you by while you’re “getting ready.” It’s like you’re forever standing on the shore, checking the water temperature, while others are already swimming.

And you’re tired, of course, of:

The inner dialogue that bulldozes any initiative. That voice whispers: “Too risky,” “You won’t succeed,” “What will people think?”

Comparing yourself to others. You see someone’s finished victories on social media and feel like you’re falling behind forever, before you’ve even started your own race.

The feeling that you’re living someone else’s script. You meet the expectations of parents, society, your boss

— but where is your own voice in all this? Your true desires?

This fatigue is not the enemy.

It’s your soul screaming: “Stop preparing! It’s time to act!”

Turn the page. Stop waiting.

You know the main secret? Successful people aren’t geniuses. They just figured out one thing:

“Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.”

— S. Chenado

Part 3: The Choice

You have two doors in front of you right now:

DOOR #1: “PERFECT CONDITIONS”

Behind it lies endless preparation. Courses, books, plans, seminars. Safe, comfortable… and completely useless! This is the road where you’re always “almost ready,” but never truly living.

DOOR #2: “THE IMPERFECT START”

Behind it lie the first clumsy steps, mistakes, awkwardness… and real life. This is the path where you fall, get up, and finally feel alive.

For all my conscious life — until about 30—I, just like you now, chose the first door. The door of “safety.” The door of “preparation.” The door of “first I need to study, wait for the perfect moment, and then I’ll start.”

Until I realized a simple thing: it was a road to nowhere.

I wasn’t “preparing for life” — I was avoiding it. Because behind Door #2 is scary. But behind Door #1 is comfortable. Yet that comfort was an illusion. A quiet, slow death of a dream.

Until one day I pushed open the second door. And the world turned upside down. Now I know — it could all have started much sooner.

This book is the key to the second door. It won’t make you invulnerable. But it will teach you to take the first step, even when you’re scared. Even when you’re not ready. Even when it seems like everyone around knows more.

Your moment of truth is right now.

Turn the page — and let’s start this imperfect, but real journey.

“Welcome to the world of the Imperfect Start. We don’t wait here. We begin.”

— S. Chenado

“Why haven’t I done this yet?”

This question comes at night when you can’t sleep. It plays in the background during meetings, walks, conversations with friends. Quiet. Persistent. Uncomfortable.

You hear it, don’t you?

Familiar scenarios:

The business you’ll launch “once everything is perfectly ready.”

The book you’ll write “when inspiration strikes” (but inspiration, ironically, is waiting for you to start). The sport you’ll start “on Monday” — for the seventh time in a row. The dream profession you’ll choose “once you feel worthy enough.”

Quitting the job you hate, the low-paying one, because “what if you don’t find another?”

The dream trip you keep postponing “until I save enough” (but the money never seems to accumulate, and it feels a pity to spend it — you’ve been saving for so long). Learning a new skill (language, coding, music) — “when I have free time” (which never arrives). Moving to another city or country where, it seems, everything would be different. The honest conversation with a loved one that everything depends on — but you’re afraid to ruin it. The apology you need to make… but pride gets in the way. The confession of feelings that remains stuck “in your head.”

Starting a family, but “not now — until there’s stability.”

Financial freedom, for which you’ll “start investing… tomorrow.”

The creative project — the film, the podcast, the exhibition, the blog.

What’s standing between you and these goals? It’s not laziness. Not a lack of time.

It’s fear.

But not the loud fear that paralyzes you in the face of real danger. It’s the quiet, poisonous fear that whispers:

“What if I fail?”

“What will people think?”

“You’re not ready!”

“Better wait a little longer…”

And we wait. We wait for the perfect moment, which… never actually arrives.

“Living in ‘waiting to start’ mode is a slow betrayal of yourself.”

— S. Chenado

While you wait:

Opportunities vanish like smoke. Enthusiasm fades away. Dreams turn into regrets. And “someday” never comes.

But here’s the good news.

That very “perfect moment” you’re waiting for? It doesn’t exist. It’s a myth created by fear to keep you in your comfort zone.

The truth is:

Readiness comes in the process, not before the start. Mistakes are data, not a verdict.

Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction!

— S. Chenado

“Your first step doesn’t have to be grand. It just has to be DONE.”

— S. Chenado

And this step can be taken right now. Today. Not when “everything falls into place,” but when that question burns in your chest: “Why haven’t I done this yet?”

→ YOUR STEP RIGHT NOW

Take 5 minutes and answer honestly:

Which dream am I postponing the most? _________________

What fear is behind this? _____________________

What will be the price of my inaction a year from now? ______

Want me to help you answer the third question?

“The price of your inaction a year from now is you — but a year older, with the same dream, the same problem, and the bitter realization that 365 days were wasted.”

A year from now, you’ll remain in this exact same place. With the same unrealized dream. With the same question: “What if I had started?” Only the bitterness of realizing that another year of missed opportunities has gone to waste will be even stronger.

Realized it? Now you have a choice:

Stay in waiting mode and regret this moment a year from now. Or… (move to the next chapter to find out).

“It all starts not on stage and not in likes. But in silence. In solitude. In the decision to simply begin.”

— S. Chenado

You’re still here. That means you made an important choice in Chapter 1—the choice not to stay stuck.

But between the decision to “start” and the actual start, there’s an invisible wall. You build it yourself. From fears, doubts, and the myth of the “right perfect moment.”

It’s like a map drawn in the dark: it promises terrible roads and bottomless abysses. But once you turn on the flashlight — take the first step — you see: the path is safer, simpler, and more interesting than your imagination painted it. Reality almost never justifies the darkest scenarios.

“You can spend years preparing for the perfect moment, but only the first step launches real progress.”

— S. Chenado

We all dream of the finished result: the luxurious life, the glossy book cover, the triumphant launch, the admiration of friends, the happy ending.

But almost no one talks about how it actually begins.

And usually, it starts like this:

It starts with discomfort. The first steps in the dark, when you can’t see the whole path. A decision that feels too small to change anything. An action that no one notices. It starts with loneliness. When you sit down to write in the silence of an empty room; When you learn a new skill without applause; When you skip a party for the sake of a project, and people think you’re weird. It starts with repetition. Not with genius breakthroughs, but with daily routine. You do the same thing until it becomes part of you. It starts with letting go of excuses. Thoughts like: “I don’t have time,” “I’m not ready,” “Now isn’t the right moment.”

The first step is when you decide:

“I’m doing this, even if it’s imperfect. Even if I’m scared. Even if no one believes.”

“Great results are thousands of tiny decisions made long before anyone starts applauding.”