Episode 11

The Cult of Done Manifesto

Silicon Valley founder Cynthia Schames joins Ep 11 to talk about fighting procrastination and doubt to get things done.

April 15, 2021

The Done Manifesto is a set of working rules based on a sense of urgency. No time for careful deliberation, it tells us. Just keep moving, it says. Written by Bre Pettis and Kio Stark in 2009, the manifesto has gained a loyal following — and for good reason. Silicon Valley Founder Cynthia Schames sits down with Zabeen Mirza to talk about the Manifesto and what each rule means and how it applies to our lives.

Rule #1: There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
Rule #2: Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
Rule #3: There is no editing stage.
Rule #4: Pretending you know what you’re doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you’re doing even if you don’t and do it.
Rule #5: Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
Rule #6: The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
Rule #7: Once you’re done you can throw it away.
Rule #8: Laugh at perfection. It’s boring and keeps you from being done.
Rule #9: People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
Rule #10: Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
Rule #11: Destruction is a variant of done.
Rule #12: If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
Rule # 13: Done is the engine of more.

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Cynthia Schames

Silicon Valley Founder

Meet the Guest

Cynthia has an extensive background is in business development, having spent over a decade in enterprise software sales at AltaVista, Equilibrium and Netopia (acquired by Google). After moving on from the corporate world, she founded and built two Ecommerce startups and brought them to successful exits. An alumnus of top tier startup accelerator 500 Startups, as well as a Startup Leadership Program fellow and board member/advisor to multiple startups, Cynthia is well regarded in the NYC and Silicon Valley tech startup industry. In addition to being the mom of tween twins, Cynthia is now the principal at CYNSCH, a boutique marketing & monetization strategy agency for startups.