September 27, 2010

Good intentions will put your life on hold. The best intentions will not equip you for success. Personal fulfillment is looking at your life and seeing results. If you don’t see results, is it possible that you stopped making decisions? The main reasons entrepreneurs delay decisions is fear of the unknown or a perceived deficiency in some area or another.

Fearlessness is the battleground won — the birthing of achievement, both personally and professionally. The bottom line is … if you don’t do anything – you won’t receive anything. To put it another way, you can’t get where you’re going if you stay where you are at.

Entrepreneurship serves as a methodical teacher of self-discipline and improvement. As a business owner if you are not willing to change you are not willing to grow. Ultimately without growth — success will continue to evade even the most seasoned entrepreneur.

By definition an entrepreneur is a person who has possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks and the outcome.

To put it plainly, as an entrepreneur you:

1. Possess a new venture or idea

2. Assume significant accountability

3. Take inherent risks for the desired outcome

It’s no surprise as to why many people stop at the great idea. Why? Sometimes it is tough to make important decisions. And ultimately, if you aren’t a strong decision maker – it’s important to quickly become one. The right decisions will shape your business while the wrong ones will keep you at square one. Successful leaders learn to quickly [and often painfully] grow to assume accountability and take more risks to accomplish their end goals.

So how can we say goodbye to good intentions and start making great decisions? Let’s start with a simple plan of action. Take the first step:

1. Put it on Paper: Yes, it seems trite – but it works. Writing your situation down on paper is a proven method of gaining clarity. Develop a concise description about the business situation that you are facing.

2. Brainstorm Alternatives: Develop a list of possible decisions. This will help you to organize your thoughts. Often at this point you can entertain different perspectives from people that are well qualified to add value [i.e. a mentor, business owner, trusted friend]. Don’t be deceived – inaction is also a decision [which can lead to even bigger problems down the road].

3. Assign Outcomes to Your List: Each possible decision will have a desirable or undesirable outcome. Take time to think about what could result from each decision. This is a simple form of risk analysis. By doing this you will understand the potential implications and deem whether or not the decision you make will be effective. This is where every entrepreneur must face his/her hesitations.

4. Choose the Best Alternative: Set your mind to become fearless – it’s an active decision. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American Philosopher, “Always do what you are afraid to do.” Once you have determined your situation, developed a list of possible decisions and assigned outcomes to each decision you can begin to choose the best alternative. Decision requires action. Communicate your decision to those involved or indirectly impacted by it and move forward. As the greek proverb suggests, “Act quickly, think slowly.”

An organized and systematic approach is often a great tool when faced with tough decisions in business and in life. Entrepreneurs are leaders that realize, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”