Marie Forleo: Review a Small Experiment Before Repeating It

The Lesson

You have tried a small project. It took effort, and you now have a result to inspect. Before repeating the same work, decide what you learned from the attempt and what another one would help you discover.

The decision need not cover your entire future. You can continue one part, change the next attempt or pause the experiment while keeping what you learned. A review is more useful when it names the evidence behind that choice.

In her official written transcript on quitting or committing, Marie Forleo asks readers to examine what they are measuring, why they are doing the work and which alternatives their current commitment is displacing. Her discussion includes both practical aims and the enjoyment of creating. Those questions provide a starting point, not a prediction that a project will succeed.

For a small learning project, distinguish an observed result from a hope. Finishing a worksheet is an observation. Believing that strangers will want it is a different claim that may still lack evidence. You can value the practice without making the second claim.

Reflection

Choose an experiment small enough to describe in a few sentences. What was its purpose when you began? If that purpose changed, write both versions rather than rewriting the past to make the result look successful.

• What did I actually attempt and complete?
• What did I observe, and what did I only imagine?
• Is there something I still want to learn from this work?
• What would another attempt take time away from?

You do not need a grand verdict on whether you are good at business or creativity. You need a decision about the next piece of work.

Practice

Original SelfGrowthVideos exercise: prepare an experiment review and choose one bounded next step. This is not an official Forleo worksheet or an endorsement. The example is fictional and its time limits are practice choices, not recommended business thresholds.

1. Write the initial aim and limit

Imagine you are making a one-page materials checklist for a beginner craft session. Your initial aim was to see whether a reader could distinguish essential supplies from optional extras. You allowed two thirty-minute work periods to prepare a sample and arrange a short reader check.

Keep the aim and limit in the review. If you did not set either in advance, say so. A review can reveal that you need a clearer experiment next time.

2. Record only what happened

In this fictional attempt, you finished a page and made two layout revisions. You spent both work periods on it. You did not arrange the reader check. No one has used the checklist.

The evidence supports a modest statement: a sample exists, and you practiced its layout. It does not answer the original question about whether a beginner can use it. Do not write that the checklist failed with readers or that demand is strong; neither was observed.

3. Compare three possible next steps

Continue: arrange the missing reader check with someone who agrees to try it. Keep the sample unchanged long enough to observe where they hesitate. This fits if the original question still matters and you can make room for the check.

Change: narrow the next version to just the supply list if the rest of the page is distracting you from that question. State what this smaller attempt would help you learn before redesigning again.

Pause: save the sample and your notes if you cannot give the next attempt useful attention. A pause can have a review date or a condition for returning, such as having an available volunteer reader. It need not become an unexamined promise to resume.

These are alternatives, not stages you must complete in order. Choose using the actual purpose, constraints and information available.

4. Make the choice inspectable

For the example, suppose you choose to continue with the missing check rather than make another layout revision. Write: “The usability question is unanswered. I will ask one willing beginner to identify the essential supplies from this sample. I will review their answer before deciding on another version.”

Name what that attempt would displace. If its time would come from another learning task, decide explicitly whether that trade is worthwhile to you. Do not treat time already spent as an instruction to keep spending it.

5. Define the next review

For the fictional reader check, record which supplies the person identifies and where they ask for clarification. That evidence can inform a revision. One reader still cannot establish a market or guarantee future use.

If your purpose is now simply to enjoy designing the page, record that changed purpose honestly. Creative enjoyment and a test of usefulness are different reasons to continue; neither needs a fabricated success claim.

Review and Check In

At your next check-in, compare your chosen step with what you actually did. Did you collect the missing information, or repeat the familiar activity? Has your reason for continuing changed?

Keep a short decision record even if you pause. Include the sample, what remains unknown and the condition under which another attempt would make sense. That gives a future review something more concrete than either regret or optimism.

Go Deeper

Visit Marie Forleo’s teacher profile and her official background page. If the next attempt involves a commitment to someone else, first check capacity before promising a delivery. For earlier exploration, listen before designing an offer.

Continue through Starting & Managing the Work, the small-business starting path and the free lesson library.