Decide to Achieve Your Goals

My friend, Chris, was in town for work last week and we had some time to hang out. A few days earlier the Dallas Cowboys had secured a playoff spot and would be playing that weekend in L.A. against the Rams. On Wednesday morning Chris got the idea that we needed to go and pitched the idea to me. After some initial hesitation, I agreed and we promptly booked travel and bought tickets to the game. As I was telling some other friends about our impromptu trip and thinking about how crazy and spontaneous it was, I started to think about the lessons I could learn from this decision and how I can apply them to business. This is what I came up with.

As an entrepreneur, business owner, or someone responsible for business development, we are constantly presented with opportunities, challenges and various other situations that require a prompt decision. We need to be able to analyze the situation, weigh the pros, cons, costs etc... and then decide what we are going to do. The answer doesn't always have to be yes, but a decision needs to be made. I, like many others, have suffered from analysis paralysis before and lost out on opportunities or just drove myself crazy with thinking about the options. Sometimes you will choose wrong, and that's okay. Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement. The key is to always be moving forward.

Additionally, we all made a decision to start or buy a business or get into sales. That decision should mean something. The word decide comes from the latin word decidere which means to cut off. When you decide, you cut off from all other options. Just like Cortez in 1519 when he landed in Mexico, he ordered the ships burnt. They only had two options, succeed or die. There was no 'Plan B'. So often I see fellow business owners or sales people that get six months or a year into things and they are not seeing the results that they wanted or expected and they get discouraged. That can easily lead to questioning your choices and coming up with, or resorting to, 'Plan B'. When I really decided to be a business owner, I knew there was no turning back. It's a lifestyle and I enjoy all that goes with it, good and bad. The freedom and the flexibility of schedules along with the sleepless nights and the fact that you don't have an "off" switch; it's always on your mind. I love it all! And to truly succeed with it, it's going to take everything I've got.

Unfortunately, the Dallas Cowboys did not find success in L.A. against the Rams. But we had an amazing weekend! We met lots of great people and connected with some old friends and family on this impromptu trip. 

Philip

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans, that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise have never occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manor of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamt would have come their way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can... begin it! Boldness has genius, power and magic in it! Begin it now!""

~ W.H. Murray