My Little Journey with ‘Start, Bench, Sell’
Alright, let me tell you about this little process I kinda stumbled into. I call it my ‘start, bench, sell’ thing. It’s not some big business strategy, just how things sometimes work out for me with ideas or small projects.
So, it usually starts like this: I get an itch. Maybe I see a small problem, something annoying in my own workflow, or just get curious about a new piece of tech. I don’t overthink it much. I just dive in. For example, a while back, I got tired of how I was tracking my notes for different clients. It was messy.
I figured, hey, maybe I can build a tiny tool for myself. Nothing fancy, you know? So I fired up my computer, picked some tools I was vaguely familiar with, and just started coding. Didn’t make a big plan. Just started putting pieces together. Spent maybe a few evenings, a weekend here and there. Got a basic version working. It did the job, mostly. That’s the ‘start’ part. Just getting something off the ground, even if it’s rough.
Putting Things on the Shelf
Then comes the bench phase. This happens naturally most times. Maybe the initial excitement wears off. Or, more often, real life kicks in. The day job gets demanding, family needs attention, or I just get pulled into something else that seems more important at the time.
So, that little tool I built? It got benched. I didn’t delete it or throw it away. I just… stopped working on it. It sat there, on my hard drive, maybe in a folder somewhere I’d occasionally see. It wasn’t actively being used or developed. Just sitting on the sidelines, waiting. Sometimes things sit on the bench for weeks, sometimes months, sometimes even longer. I don’t really worry about it. It’s just parked there.
Bringing it Back into Play
Now, the sell part isn’t always about money. For me, it’s more about finding a use for that thing I benched. It’s bringing it back into the game. This part is usually unexpected.
Like with that note-tracking tool. Months later, I was chatting with a colleague who mentioned a similar frustration. Suddenly, I remembered my benched project! I dug it up, blew off the digital dust, and showed it to them. It was still basic, still a bit clunky. But the core idea was sound.
We tweaked it a little together, cleaned it up just enough. And bam! It found a new life. It wasn’t sold for cash, but it ‘sold’ its usefulness. It got off the bench and started solving a real problem for someone else, not just me. It felt good to see something I started, then parked, actually become useful later on.
So yeah, that’s my ‘start, bench, sell’ cycle. It’s not planned, just something I noticed happens. Start something simple, let it rest if needed, and sometimes, an opportunity comes along to put it back into play. Works for me.
