Where do I begin?

With today being the first day of a new decade, it felt appropriate to write about some of the feelings that come up at the beginnings.

I have started more companies in my life than I ever imagined. I've spent time on additional products that I never even made it to the official company stage of life. And I'm right in the middle of starting something again.

And almost always there's been this question of "where do I even begin?"

There's so much to build, read, write, create, explore, learn, grow, and do that it can feel overwhelming. I've found this simple formula that has served me well, and I'm writing about it now as a reminder.

In solving any complex problem or building anything signficant, I've found it's best to look for the building blocks to unlock the next level.

Break down the situation into the significant and major accomplishments that make the rest of the game easier. Level up each step of the way to accomplish bigger and better things.

Here's a quick real life example of this.

When we started NY Tech Day, neither myself nor my partner had any connections in the NYC tech community. We didn't have an audience to jump start this. We were literally started from scratch with a powerful idea and a lot of skeptics.

I knew to hit the massive numbers we were promoting and expecting, we needed to up level quickly. I started by getting two prominent startups to agree to attend as featured startups. It took a list of 50 dream startups to get there: 48 no's to get to 2 yes's. With those two on board, we were able to get some initial press. Now with 2 featured startups and a few press articles, we were able to attract investor interest. Then the attendees started flowing. Then the sponsorship sales became easier. And finally the rest of the startups jumped on board. None of that could have been done without executing at each level of the game. Building blocks.

All told, we ended up with 200 startup exhibitors, 4000 attendees and over 10 high dollar sponsors for a first year event in a brand new market.

As I sit here at the beginning of this new year and with this new venture contemplating where to start, I'm reminded of the simple and powerful answer.

Start on Day 1. Level 1. Figure out the skills required to complete this level and move on to the next.