I wonder how many people reading this watched the original television series MacGyver when it originally aired? Aside from being Selma and Patty Bouvier’s celluloid object of desire and the inspiration for SNL’s Will Forte creation MacGruber, this TV character is that rare proper noun that has been “verbed.” To MacGyver something is to bootstrap and/or apply a life hack that transforms something from nothing to save the day.

If you are starting anything from scratch, be it a business, nonprofit organization or even something as personal as your family, chances are good you are doing a LOT of improvising on the fly. Innovation is perilously close to becoming buzzworded to death, but the ability to innovate is a bonus for anyone who is attempting to grow beyond his or her comfort zone.

Necessity may be the mother of invention, but MacGyver is at least a distant cousin. What is necessary to thrive when you are building something new? What skills, either innate or learned, can help you to succeed in today’s landscape? In exceedingly pared-down terms, these three basics:

• The Ability to Assess: Assessing something requires an analytical, thorough-but-swift examination of what exists in your tool kit, in terms of resources and skills available. It’s a dispassionate accounting of tools and opportunities that can be claimed and/or harnessed. NOTE: This step requires radical self-honesty. You must account for what IS, not “what’s missing” or “what is wished for.” What. Is. Having the ability to assess magnifies your effectiveness. If you can distill and catalogue what is available, you have the opportunity to move onto the next step. Resourcefulness, ingenuity and creativity are all vitally important at this stage, especially if your resources are limited.

• The Capacity to Address: In this instance, to address means to implement. Being able to apply a triage lens to this step of applying solutions also increases your efficiency and sometimes, effectiveness. Delegation falls under this category as well. Action is the key component of this step. You must be willing to commit to a course of action, either personally or through those on your team. Confidence is essential, even if you aren’t completely sure what’s going to happen. Being secure in your ability to overcome, adapt and fine-tune are an invaluable subset of skills at this stage. During the Address stage, you’ll want to seek out partnerships and resources that your Assessment stage identified as needed but missing.

• Your Willingness to Move On: This is the step where you measure, perform an accounting (cost/benefit analysis) and either build upon the first two steps or release the outcome. This is the fish or cut bait stage. This stage can be difficult, because it can be a nebulous transition of identifying when the ‘address’ stage is over and the ‘move on’ stage has begun. For example: consider the person who keeps opening the oven door after the cookies have been put in to bake, because they aren’t committed to letting the process unfold. Every time the oven door opens, the temperature alters the interior of the oven and skews the results. By deciding to let the cookies bake and then committing to remove them from the oven after 8 minutes is over, you are setting measurable accountings for Moving On. If they are underdone, the next cookie sheet stays in for 12 minutes. If they are burned to a crisp after 15 minutes, make an adjustment to shorten the baking time for the next batch. Your comfort with the willingness to be “wrong” is a crucial skill to develop at this step.

“It is so conceited and timid to be ashamed of one’s mistakes. Of course they are mistakes. Go on to the next.” —Brenda Ueland

Innovators and would-be MacGyvers must learn how to iterate quickly. If it’s one thing I’ve learned over the previous decade, it’s not only to fail often, but to fail quickly. Learning from your failure is essential. Wallowing in your failure is dangerous.

Once you have failed, move on with a clear vision of what you hope to achieve, retaining that which contributes to your effort and discarding that which does not. The more you practice this, the better you’ll get.

Here’s something that’s really nifty: as you get better and faster at failing, you are accumulating wisdom. Your various iterations are building your personal database. Each time you progress through the three phases, your resources increase, because you will have developed a greater base of knowledge.

So don’t worry too much. Begin where you are with what you have. Pay attention. Keep moving.

You’ll get there.

P.S. Every Sunday, I publish a free weekly newsletter called the 3 Minute Reset, which includes life lessons, life hacks and treats. To subscribe, click here.