One of the more impactful statements I heard from an advisor in my early tech days was,
This was an antidote for my scattered mind in moments of to-do list paralysis.
There is always a shiny object on the other side of a whole lot of obstacles.
I wanted to jump across the river rather than build a bridge.
”Solve for today’s needs” is like nutrition instead of drugs.
I used to think I needed the same setup as my favorite creators.
The perfect camera.
A backup rig.
A dedicated office.
A studio mic.
Turns out, they didn’t start with that either.
They solved for what was right in front of them.
When I did my first video shoots, I rented gear.
When I started traveling full-time, I built a platform bed out of plywood and threw a sleeping bag on top.
I’ve learned that getting started means letting go of the idea of “ideal.”
You’re not building for five years from now—you’re building for right now.
Paul Graham of Y Combinator said it best:
I first heard this from AirBnb Co-Founder Brian Chesky - he was relaying this advice.
We often get bogged down by hypothetical needs before we validate the basic premise.
Does 2 days of camping require you to spend $10,000 on a rooftop tent and other gear? Might as well go stay at the Four Seasons.
If you need to hand-deliver your first orders, do it.
If you need to shoot your client project on rented gear, do it.
If your content doesn’t look like your favorite YouTuber’s yet, post it.
They didn’t look like that either when they started. I was using shutter speed to adjust the brightness on my first video… Hmmm, why does this all look shaky and bad?
Launching my new LUT system is an example of this.
I was spending hours color grading, tweaking tones, and matching clips across cameras.
So I made a system for myself, and now I’m sharing it.
I use the same Luts every day to get my content out.
Now that I’m grading scenes for my upcoming films, I export new LUTs on a weekly basis.
I’ve sold the LUTs I most commonly use, but I figured a more consistent and feedback-driven product was warranted as I improve the color and have more options to fit the varying scenes.
You can check them out here.
If it helps you solve today’s problem, that’s enough.
You don’t need the whole staircase.
You just need the next step.
That’s it. Solve for today’s needs.
See you next week—
Aaron
P.S.
If you want to check out the LUTs and short lessons I built from my film workflow, they’re live now → try them out.
