This Growth Coach business coaching blog is about the value of action over inaction, movement over meditation. As an entrepreneur, just about anything is better for you than inaction. That's right, even imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. Inaction teaches you nothing. On the other hand, action reveals all the real-world feedback and lessons you need to make adjustments to be more successful.
After 25 years of helping small business owners (7 years as a CPA and 18 years as a business coach), I have seen first-hand that successful and wealthy entrepreneurs don’t wait for conditions to be “perfect”. When they smell an opportunity that makes sense, they take action. They don't wait to have 100% of the facts and answers. They don't worry about having incomplete information. They don’t ponder, over-analyze and procrastinate. In fact, they have a bias for action...even if it's imperfect action. They get moving! Do you?
The Growth Coach serves several thousand small business clients every year. As such, our certified business coaches get to observe that the most successful and satisfied entrepreneurs don’t worry about perfect opportunities or perfect circumstances. Those don't exist. These successful clients don't even wait for perfect information. They simply gather enough information to know that the opportunity appears legitimate and then they start taking action. And it's in the action that the rest of the information, resources, adjustments, and answers are revealed...not by sitting around. For them, the equation is simple: ACTION=FEEDBACK and ANSWERS=SUCCESS
Let's face reality, perfect opportunities don't exist. Most good opportunities come covered in a layer of problems and headaches...far from perfect but capable of providing substantial wealth. As such, successful entrepreneurs (opportunists) know that real wealth and success comes from intelligent yet often imperfect ACTION ... but real wealth NEVER comes from inaction. Again, value movement over meditation or procrastination. After all, when have you ever heard stories about the wealthy procrastinator?
Most want-to-be entrepreneurs and average business owners are caught up in an idealistic “perfect world syndrome”. That’s why they never create substantial wealth for themselves and their families. They wait for perfect conditions before they advance toward their bigger dreams and goals. Instead of mining all the gold around them and getting a little dirty in the process, they keep searching and hoping for the perfect industry, the perfect business, the perfect timing, the perfect product/service, and the perfect conditions and circumstances to materialize BEFORE they take action. This search never has a happy ending. "Perfect world" does not exist. Waiting for it is totally unrealistic and a bit insane.
Why do these otherwise intelligent people procrastinate? As a metaphor, why do they wait for all the traffic lights to be green before backing out of their garage? Simple, they are afraid of taking chances. Instead of managing reasonable risks, they are unreasonable and want all risks to be eliminated and all answers to be available. These unachievable, perfect conditions also provide people with wonderful excuses for not taking action and responsibility. Tragically, these well intended folks wait a lifetime for “perfect world” to appear and very often, take their big dreams to the grave with them.
What’s the solution? Get real! Take responsibility for your business and life. Stop making excuses. Get rid of the word “perfect” from your vocabulary and your expectations. There is no such thing. Look for “very good” opportunities to grow your business and build wealth, not “perfect” ones.
The key is to decide on what you really want in your business and life and then go after it – not next decade, not next year, not next month, not tomorrow. Take action on it TODAY!
Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder & Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System
Certified Business Coaches throughout North America