Shaving a Yak - To do or not to do?

How do you approach a task? Is your instant impulse to go above and beyond or a calm and collected calibration of your resources to best deliver it? Many a time, we delve into a task with the sole purpose of succeeding and yet fail to meet expectations. As an entrepreneur, it is essential that you avoid shaving a yak. That took a turn, didn’t it? Yak shaving popularly used in coding circles is when a developer sets out to fix a bug but decides to embark on a journey to clean up the entire code. Doable as it might be, this often leads to instances where the actual bug still remains a problem. Shaving the Yak happens in most businesses when you run into several unexpected problems to complete the primary task at hand. Consequently, you are left shaving a yak with no end in sight.

A lot of entrepreneurs go down this rabbit hole at some point where they are fueled by a sense of over-achievement. While the drive needs to be commended and nurtured, you need to judge your course of action objectively. You can complete the given tasks and fix problems only if you approach them strategically. Reach out to your team and mentors. Use them as a sounding board to devise solutions that will allow you to execute work efficiently. However, to ensure that it works, it is essential that you are open to change and occasionally doing things that may not align with your modus operandi. As an entrepreneur, you should adapt and transform to the situation.

This is easy in retrospect, but you often never realize when we start shaving the yak. It usually begins with an intent to deliver a grand ‘idea’ or ‘project’ without assessing the variables involved to achieve the task. For instance, you are the Marketing Head of a community campaign raising funds for refugee children. As opposed to a digital campaign you want to conduct a themed event with entertainment to inspire and encourage donations within a week. While the latter, though a herculean task on ground, may leave an impressive impact, you need to find a venue, artists, collateral to market the event and arrange venue set-up. However, in opting for the digital campaign where you rally your social media connections and online community to support the cause through donations and digital shares, you are able to reach a larger audience organically and are likely to raise funds ‘cost effectively.’

Long story short, there is always a pragmatic way to deliver your task without compromising on your objectives. All you need to do is to evaluate the approaches and resources at your disposal. Don’t let the Yak to distract you!