Action is the foundational key to all success – Pablo Picasso
We blogged recently about the timeliness that a New Year brings for assessment of business activities and goals. We advocated activities such as revisiting business and marketing plans to check progress against targets; conducting a marketing audit of activities identifying what worked and what didn’t.
However these activities alone will not result in any improvement unless they are implemented. Action, the vital ingredient to success, is required.
Sometimes it can seem difficult to take that first step if obstacles are perceived in your way. These might include lack of research, conviction that an idea will work, a general lack of self belief or fear of failure. However, whilst identifying and balancing risks – you will never know unless you’ve tried. And part of success is picking yourself up and moving on if ’at first you don’t succeed’ or an idea didn’t work.
I personally take much inspiration from those who took the leap and followed their ideas to fruition such as the successful entrepreneurs interviewed in this story: Tips from Unstoppable Women Entrepreneurs.
Here are some other wise words. In his book Think Big and Kick Ass, Donald Trump – who has demonstrated incredible resilience in navigating both personal and business highs and lows said:
“Once you set your goals, start looking for opportunities to start acting on them. If you hesitate when an opportunity presents itself to you, it may be the fear of failure that makes you procrastinate. Break through this fear, for if you make a habit of procrastinating then all your goals become empty promises that will never be fulfilled. Always keep your promises to yourself by making a habit of acting on your goals.”
My favourite though is from management guru, consultant and author Tom Peters:
“Try it! Try it! Try it! If a suggestion is made, your instinctive response should be ‘Try It’. In 40 plus years of study and practice, I sometimes think I’ve only learned one thing: ’He or she who tries the most stuff wins”
Here he talks of ‘‘What the Hell Moments”. The comments in the post are also insightful.
When I think back over my corporate life before establishing Marketing Is Us, the most successful companies and CEO’s with whom I worked – were those who said just that ‘Try It’.
May you do much ‘Try It’ in 2010 and I wish you great success and learnings from the journey.
Have you had a ‘Try It’ moment? What has been your journey on the road to action? We’d love to hear about it.
NB Donald Trump’s book (and others) now available at our E Store.
When I retired from a Management position I wondered what I should do to keep my mind active. I decided to be a consultant but had no prior experience. So I thought that I should Try It. In the event it turned out to be a successful decision.
Even though initially I made some mistakes I learned from the experience. One should never be scared of making mistakes – so long as one does try it, making mistakes and learning from them is better than doing nothing
Thanks Todd very much for your comment. Agree. The successes from ‘trying it’ provide the confidence for the next ‘Try It’ moment and a buffer cushioning those that didn’t work out. Congratulations on your many ‘Try It’ successes. Best wishes!
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[...] needs to be done quickly if an opportunity arises suddenly. As we noted in a previous post “Marketing Strategy: Just Try It”: “If you hesitate when an opportunity presents itself to [...]