What baffles me the most about a lot of business owners is how little thought they seem to put into their projects, yet many of them experience great success with their businesses. I’ve seen millionaires make multi-million dollar deals over a three minute cell phone call, pitched (and sold) website creatives to massive web development firms via brief face to face meetings. All of these observations have taught me one extremely valuable lesson: think less, do more.
The reason that someone might be able to sign a deal so quickly is because they know that it will come through as expected. A good business-person knows that they can’t handle every aspect of their business, so it becomes crucial to outsource whenever possible. I’ve noticed that my inability to trust others to do what they say they will do has saved me from being burned a few times, but it’s also prevented me from really taking advantage of an excellent opportunity or killer business move.
I’ve read my fair share of “self help” business books. For legality reasons I’m not going to name any, but let me say that my father was neither rich nor poor, and that I am not very good at making deals. Unfortunately, the books that I’ve read haven’t solved either one of those problems. Instead, what I noticed was that I was buying more books and learning a lot about how to get motivated without actually doing anything. It was a beautiful circle, and I imagine that the publisher of those books just loved it.
It took some time, but I finally realized that I could read all the self-help junk that I wanted and I’d never be any further ahead. My decision to stop buying and reading those books helped me develop a successful business. I took a few weeks to plan out my approach, how I was going to make it work, and then I put it into action. Once I was satisfied that my research was adequate for what I needed I didn’t hesitate any longer.
Hesitation cost you money. I guess we’ll call that point number two.
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View Comments
That is so true! The diffeerence really is to actually do something and not just think about it. The more you think of an idea, the more you will find reasons not to do it and will never start.
In a lot of cases the difference between sucess and failure is follow through.
Good post…but I definitely find reading a large range of books gives you different perspectives on how to build a successful business. You can pick and choose what methods you follow and apply them to what works for you.