With Black Friday approaching, the pressure to launch something (anything!) is everywhere. But not every idea is ready to bloom. Some are still underground, quietly developing roots, waiting for the right season to flourish.
If you’ve worked solo long enough, you’ve seen this pattern: the idea that felt too big, too early, or too complicated circles back years later. When it returns, it’s clearer, sharper, and better aligned with who you’ve become.
Ideas have their own pace. Some sprint, others stroll.
The trouble is, we often confuse momentum with readiness. We think an idea has to move fast to matter. But most ideas are slow growers. They need time to root, reshape, and find their fit.
Looking back, some of my lasting work started as half-finished sketches tucked away in notebooks. They weren’t bad ideas, just premature ones. I needed more perspective, or the market needed to catch up, or both.
What I’ve learned is this: The gap between an idea’s arrival and landing isn’t wasted time. It’s incubation.
That’s where you gain the insight, clarity, or confidence that gives the idea true staying power.
If you have a list of “someday/maybe” ideas, don’t delete them. Label them as waiting, not missed. They’re not done. They’re developing.
Revisit that list every few months. Ask yourself: Which ideas fit better now? Which align with my current direction, tools, or audience? You may see patterns or realize your growth reshapes those ideas.
For me, an example is a self-employment self-quiz I created over 30 years ago for my first book, Working Solo. Back then, it was a simple tool to help readers assess their readiness to work independently.
But now, with AI advances, I see possibilities for turning that idea into something more dynamic and personalized. What felt good but basic decades ago might finally find its fullest expression soon.
It’s a reminder that some ideas need time to align with our abilities, available tools, or the market’s readiness.
As year-end approaches and deadlines loom, it’s tempting to rush into something new. But you don’t need to force an idea prematurely.
Instead, assess what’s maturing in the background. Recognize which ideas are ready to flourish today, and which ones remain in development, waiting for their moment.
The best ideas may germinate early, but thrive when given room to grow. Appreciate the slower, quieter rhythm of ideas finding their way. There’s an art to letting them grow.
Ideas never die, they just lie waiting on old disks
While recently cleaning out old office boxes, I came across a Zip 100 disk (remember those?) labeled simply Working Solo books. I didn’t even remember making it.
Curious, I sent it to a company called RetroFloppy, which specializes in rescuing files from long-forgotten media such as floppies, Zip drives, SyQuests, and other relics.
A week later, they emailed me the contents: the updated text files of all five of my Working Solo books, from the late 1990s! It felt like opening a time capsule, not just of data but of ideas.
Now I need to decide whether these will become ebooks (or something else). It’s proof that even our oldest work can find its way back when the timing (and technology) is right. What data do you have trapped on old drives?
The hour between dog and wolf
This weekend in most of the USA, we turned back the clocks, gaining an hour but losing light. Melissa Kirsch’s beautiful essay, “Quality Time,” (NYT gift link) transports us to that in-between space. She calls it “the hour between dog and wolf,” when the sky can’t decide between blue and black.
She writes about the strange mix of melancholy and possibility that comes with early sunsets, when our days contract and the world quiets. Drawing on the Greek idea of kairos and the right or sacred time, she reminds us that every season holds its own opportunity, if we’re awake enough to notice.
It’s a lovely meditation on slowing down, tuning in, and finding presence in the darker months ahead. I hope you enjoy it. (Thanks to Jacq for originally sharing it with me.)
YouTube without the hype
If one of the ideas you’ve been germinating is a YouTube channel, this detailed guide from Visla is worth bookmarking. It walks you through every stage, from writing your channel’s one-sentence promise to designing your banner, thumbnails, and workflow.
What I like most: it strips away the hype and delivers practical advice on topics such as how to title your videos for search, building consistency without burnout, and using YouTube’s built-in analytics to improve over time. It demystifies what success on the platform really looks like, so you can decide whether this is a good fit for you.
That’s it for this week’s Solo Field Notes. Thanks for joining me!
Until next week: Stay small. Play big.
Terri
P.S. When you’re ready for more, here are a few resources from the Solo Business School:
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Authority By Design is a registered trademark, and Content Velocity and Working Solo are trademarks, of Make International LLC. Issue #087.