Some of you have noticed that I’m no longer on the sidebar of this blog — but I haven’t gone away. I’ll be back from time to time as a guest author, and often as a reader. Why the change? Well, I followed my own advice, offered here:
Stop shipping.
Or rather stop just shipping.
“Shipping,” (Seth Godin’s term for getting over fears and getting things done) is important, of course — so many of us stop well short of turning what we say we’ll do into what we actually do.
But ticking a box or crossing something off a list just isn’t enough. Not really.
When you focus only on shipping, you deliver what’s required, but not what’s expected. You follow the script precisely, and miss the point completely. You satisfy the order, but not the need.
See, there’s a huge difference between “shipping” and “fulfilling.” “Shipping” is about getting something out the door, but “fulfilling” is about realizing potential — about meeting (and maximizing) expectations, about eliminating the gap between what is and what could be.
One’s a transaction, the other’s a relationship — with your customers, your partner, yourself.
No, you can’t fulfill all the time, nor for everything (though I’d certainly argue for that as an ideal, but most of us — me included — aren’t that rigorous in our prioritizing). There are often times when getting pebbles out of the way allows you to move boulders. But just as often, there are times when our focus on the little means we’ve lost sight of the big.
And yes, fulfilling is hard. It’s much harder than shipping, partly because it includes shipping.
It’s harder because it’s about becoming, not just doing. It’s harder because it’s not about being done, it’s about continuing to do — and understanding why and how we do it. It’s harder because it requires action and acceptance. It requires us to stop and think. To reevaluate. To take risks. To anticipate. To choose.
It’s harder because it means we have to stretch beyond what is and make the jump. And keep jumping.
Fulfilling means abandoning the rote. It means questioning what we’ve always done, especially if that’s why we continue to do it. It means questioning what’s expected of us. It means questioning those things we do simply because we think (or are told) we “should”, or because it was a decision we made once upon a time. Because we’d already “shipped.”
But fulfilling means shaking off the tyranny of “should,” and finding your own path to what is, what needs to be, and what deserves to be…right now.
And shipping — just shipping — will never get you there.
So: ship? Or fulfill?
It’s time to choose.
Image: Louis Abate
I think I understand where you’re coming from. I often have so much inspiration and not enough drive.. and one without the other is useless, like lightbulb needs electricity. I recently gathered inspiration from you to change directions in my blog.. in fact your posts gave me that shove I needed. Now let’s hope I can actually fulfill and not just ship around 😉 Here’s my blog ovation on you: http://ninavstheworld.blogspot.com/2011/08/changes-and-reflections.html
Thanks again for everything! I hope you keep coming back regularly to post.
I think I understand where you’re coming from. I often have so much inspiration and not enough drive.. and one without the other is useless, like lightbulb needs electricity. I recently gathered inspiration from you to change directions in my blog.. in fact your posts gave me that shove I needed. Now let’s hope I can actually fulfill and not just ship around 😉 Here’s my blog ovation on you: http://ninavstheworld.blogspot.com/2011/08/changes-and-reflections.html
Thanks again for everything! I hope you keep coming back regularly to post.
It’s kind of sad how words like Godin’s “Ship” or Merlin Mann’s “Inbox Zero” manage over time to go from being lofty goals aimed at doing important work to meaningless buzz-words that are the exact opposite of their original intent. Alas, for the moment we now have fulfill 🙂
Getting ready to fulfill a project that has been two years in the making next week and it makes it easy to see what you mean, there is a real difference between just getting something done and actually doing something important.
Interesting post but in reading it I think I’m not quite in agreement. My take on Seth’s suggestion to “ship” is that that he is referring to the act of getting something out the door vs. analyzing it to death and never producing anything. I agree that shipping shoddy content is bad but I disagree that the concept of “shipping” means that the work will not be significant or high-quality.
To me, shipping is synonymous with fulfilling. Just my take on it 🙂
Have to agree with Michael. What’s in a word. I guess it is in how you view the definition of shipping. It is a fine balance between taking action (shipping) and as Michael says potentially over analyzing it.
But, I think I get your point. doing things that will fulfill you all the way around. Good luck in your endeavors!
Best,
Rajka
Very interesting take Tamsen. Agree with you, though remember, we’re tuned in when you’re ready to be backmto fulfilling YOUR needs!
Great thinking . Thanks for sharing your views about the difference between shipping and fulfilling .
Well I’d sure like to strive to fulfill in all things, but obviously that’s going to take some work on my part. Work = time = great returns.
Great post Tam! All too often, we are willing to complete tasks just for the sake of completely them. There is a real joy in creating a meaningful, well thought out project. It is the only way to excel, at your job and in life.