Stop waiting for permission from your bank account

Most people wait for the bank to tell them it’s okay. They check the balance, find an excuse, and push their dream to “someday.” The truth I’ve learned and lived is sharper: you don’t start with money. You start with a small, purposeful action that proves something to one person. That action creates momentum.

The airport moment that changed the idea of “need”

A story I keep coming back to happened in 1979 while a young entrepreneur was on holiday. That man wasn’t a born billionaire,  he left school early, struggled with dyslexia, and built his success one risky step at a time. On this trip his scheduled flight was cancelled. Rather than sulk, he did something simple and bold.

He rang a charter operator, found out the price to hire a plane (reports put it around $2,000), then split that cost into seats. He wrote on a board: “Virgin Airways — $39 one way to Puerto Rico.” He offered the stranded passengers a guaranteed way to travel that night. People paid. The plane flew. He likely didn’t make much profit that day,  the point was solving the immediate problem and proving demand.

That man was Richard Branson. The flight stunt was a single-day hustle, not the birth of an airline, but it proved two powerful things: people will pay for reliability and better service, and you can replace ownership with access.

Turning a stunt into a system (how the real business was built)

It’s easy to romanticize the one-day story and make it feel like the whole business began there. It didn’t. Five years later, in 1984, he helped launch Virgin Atlantic. But starting an airline required far more than the charter trick. Planes cost enormous sums; running scheduled flights demands insurance, maintenance, crews, and regulatory approvals.

So instead of buying aircraft, he used other levers:

• Lease the asset. Leasing lets you operate without the giant upfront cost of buying.
• Pre-sell the outcome. Advance ticket sales bring money in early and prove demand.
• Negotiate for time and terms. Spread big payments into manageable schedules and share risk.
• Use the story as fuel. Publicity and brand make it easier to get partners and customers to say “yes.”

The lesson: the first day’s stunt proved the problem; the later business used structure and creative finance to scale it.

My slow laptop season, the same lesson, smaller scale

I didn’t have a plane to rent,  I had a slow laptop and a lot of urgency. I wanted skills, clients, and growth, but the courses I needed were expensive and my machine was barely able to run the tools. I asked friends for help and mostly got polite no’s.

So I started with the smallest thing I could: a person willing to teach the basics cheaply, free YouTube lessons, cheap ebooks, and relentless practice on that old laptop. I offered results first,  low pay or compensation-based deals and swapped early value for trust. One client said yes. That first win bought me a better laptop. A few wins later, clients paid for training I couldn’t afford at the start.

I didn’t wait for the perfect kit. I used the relationships I could build and the tiny assets I had to create leverage. That’s how momentum compounds: small wins, repeated.

Simple, practical steps you can take right now

If you want to move from “someday” to action, here are straightforward moves to try this week:

1. Find the smallest possible version of your idea. What can you deliver today that proves value to one person?
2. Solve one person’s real problem for free or low pay. Use that result as proof and a testimonial.
3. Ask for access, not ownership. Borrow or lease tools; collaborate with someone who already has the asset.
4. Sell the outcome before building the full thing. Pre-sell or pilot to fund early costs.
5. Turn one “yes” into leverage. Use the trust from early clients to negotiate for training, tools, or introductions.

Why mindset matters more than money

There’s a practical brain trick here. Telling yourself “I can’t” primes your mind to find reasons and blockers. Saying “I’ll find a way” activates your problem-solving,  suddenly hundreds of small options appear. That shift of language changes what your brain hunts for.

Final thought and a question

Technology has flattened many barriers. With an internet connection and time, a lot of knowledge is reachable. But access to information isn’t the same as doing the work. Motion matters. Start with what you have, solve one person’s problem, and build from that momentum.

What’s the smallest step you can take this week that money has been stopping you from doing? Reply and tell me; I’ll respond.