It has been 4 weeks since I decided to start blogging. I prepared a list of some of the ideas I might write about, made sure to buy the right domain, get a landing page up and running, research the best blogging platforms out there and even decide which of them I will use. All before I write a single word. Something was blocking me from starting, and I didn’t know what it was.
I have been there before, many times, and every single time there is only one way to get over this deadlock: I tell myself “Just start”, and I just start doing whatever I need to do. In my case it was opening a new document and just starting writing about anything that comes to my mind.
I remember in the very early days of starting Bosta, we spent almost two months doing market research, deciding on the company name, choosing brand colors, and debating the business model — only to discover later that we had wasted two precious months of the company’s life. We didn’t write a single line of code, we didn’t ship anything. All we did was simply delay our launch.
This is a well-known phenomenon among founders — and people in general — called productive procrastination: when you convince yourself you’re making progress, but in reality, you’re just avoiding the uncomfortable act of starting.
I came across a short video of Michael Seibel today where he said, “We always tell our YC companies: you’re nothing until you launch.” I couldn’t agree more. The truth is, momentum doesn’t come from planning — it comes from doing.
You'd think I had learned my lesson after Bosta. But a few years later, while building TradeHub, I found myself in a different version of the same trap. This time it was about decisions. We spent weeks analyzing the UK wholesale market, debating which customers to target first, what features to build first, and waiting for certainty before acting. We called it being “data-driven.” In reality, it was another psychological trap — analysis paralysis — overthinking everything to the point that we stopped making decisions altogether.
Things only started to move when we got out of the office and began talking to customers — any customers we could find. We gained more clarity as we went.
Those experiences changed how I think about starting anything new. Whenever a founder asks for my advice, I tell them this: Don’t wait for the perfect plan — just make sure your idea is clear enough that you can explain it in a few simple sentences. Once it’s clear, start. Be committed, and take one real step forward. And above all, find the right people to do it with you.
The right people make the hard parts lighter, and they keep things moving when you would’ve stopped on your own.
It is much harder to start something alone, though many have done it. There's an Arabic saying: "choose the friend before choosing the road" - meaning the people you travel with matter more than the destination itself. When you have someone who shares the same goal, starting becomes easier. You give each other the courage to begin, you hold each other accountable, and when one person loses motivation, the other pulls them forward. In my case, I can never imagine myself or Ezzat starting Bosta without having each other’s back. We were always there for each other, and we always pushed each other from the very beginning through every hard moment. Having the right people, whether a co-founder or team member, makes it easier for you to start and to continue.
There were a few times when I had to start something alone, like the blog I am writing now. One thing that's worked for me in these cases is to tell someone what you’re doing and ask them to hold you accountable. It's harder to quit when others are watching. In the blog case, I asked a former colleague - someone I knew wouldn't let me slack - to check on my progress weekly. Another thing is to always remember the value of the thing you’re doing and how it might affect other people (or you) positively when you work on it. In my case, I wanted to start blogging because I wanted to share the knowledge I have accumulated over the past few years in building startups with more people to help them build their own. This post exists because I decided to open a blank document and just start writing. When I started, all ideas came together and I finished it in a single sitting.
“An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.” – Newton's First Law of Motion.
Startups are momentum, and momentum doesn’t magically appear; it’s created by movement. Once you take actual actions things start to move, and when it moves, it becomes much easier to keep it going. It’s exactly the same with anything you want to do or build. The hardest part is the first push. Once you take that initial step, friction drops, energy flows, and things start connecting in ways you couldn’t predict while standing still. I mean, who could ever imagine that 2 engineers with no experience in logistics or business ended up building one of the most successful delivery companies in the Middle East? What I'm trying to say is: all you need to make a change, or achieve a goal, or build something great is to start. The momentum will take care of the rest.
There's one more thing worth mentioning, especially if you're leading a team: When you're the CEO or leader of a team, people look to you to break the inertia. They're waiting for someone to take that first step. Your job isn't to have all the answers - it’s to move first, so others can follow.