Are You Guilty Of Putting The Cart Before The Horse?

I honestly have no idea what made me think of this, but the question I am
putting forth to you is simple.

Are you guilty of putting the cart before the horse?

For example, do you purchase a book on how to advertise on the Internet
before you even have anything to promote?

I'm not saying that things have to be done in a very specific order, since
there are so many business models, but there are going to be times when
it's pretty obvious that before you get that shiny new book on killer
advertising strategies that maybe it would be a good idea to first decide
what market you're going to get into, what solution to what problem you're
going to solve (some markets have multiple problems) and finally what
product you decide you're going to promote.

This is not to say that you can't do this in reverse (get all your marketing
knowledge down first and then pick a market) but what if you don't find
something you like? What if you take so long to find something that the
methods you just learned become dated?

It's certainly something to consider before you make any decisions on
what to take on and what to leave for another day. By doing this, you
might find that things go a lot smoother.