Start with Something That Does Nothing

When building a new thing, a good first step is to build a thing that does nothing. That way, you at least know you are starting from a good place.

Linking out to this short post by Raymond Chen on the Microsoft devblogs, which provides great advice.

Make sure you can do nothing successfully. Only then should you start making changes so it starts doing something. That way, you know that any problems you have are related to your attempts to do something.