On the one hand, I dream of massive victories.

Maybe it’d be Jason Fried blogging about us or The Verge covering a new feature release or one of our tools making the front page of Hacker news or Vox using our data in that story we pitched to them or Convince & Convert naming us a top tool or…yeah, there are a lot of ’em.

Yet, when I look at the stuff that’s made a difference thus far, it’s typically the exact opposite.

It’s one-by-one.

• It’s offering a free account to someone I respect who tells a friend, who tells a client, who tells a friend.
• It’s a quick email with a high five to a guy on the waiting list who runs business I admire and they don’t just become a user, but an advocate.
• It’s a thank-you postcard mailed to a new customer who doesn’t end up sticking around, but tells their peers about how much she enjoyed being part of what we are trying to build.

A few weeks ago, my 6 year old daughter and I went on a little date to an arcade. And, because it’s just what you do at arcades, we played a bunch of SkeeBall.

Building this business kinda reminds me of how that went.

Every once in a while a ball (mostly by luck) would land in the 10 or even the 20 point hole (we never did get one into those annoying 100 point holes in the corners). But every ball gets you at least a few points. And it’s just by rolling one ball at a time, over and over and over and over again that those points start to add up.

And the next thing you know you’ve got enough 1 or 2 or 5 points piled on top of each other – maybe a lucky 20 pointer mixed in – to make 100 not look so big after all.

Let’s be real, I’d still love a jackpot. But I can’t count on that and, maybe, we don’t even need it for this project to become what we hope it can become.

So, I’ll just keep on rollin…

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