The most successful people I know are not necessarily the smartest people I know

So many times in life, I have scratched my head when I have first encountered a successful entrepreneur and asked myself ‘how on Earth did they achieve that’. In my experience, it is often not the smartest people who achieve business success but those who act the fastest.

I put this down to one simple phenomenon - an enormous head-start is gained by placing action above contemplation.

Now, I am not advocating that an entrepreneur launch into a venture without thoroughly exploring why they are undertaking such an endeavour, and without comprehensively planning how to bring their concept to fruition.

What I am saying is that my experience has taught me that contemplation has a very high cost to a new venture (which ought to be managed carefully), and action has a very great benefit (which ought to be applied liberally).

The best businesses I have seen are the ones that learn by doing. Yes, they start-off with a strategy but they also commit themselves to being nimble, so that every time they learn something, they make an improvement based on that knowledge. [Reflection versus contemplation, if you like.]

I have advised a number of entrepreneurs who have been successful largely because they jumped in the swimming pool of trade and commerce at the right depth - not too deep that they could not be saved if they drowned but deep-enough that they had to learn how to swim - fast!

The point is that they jumped, and they learned a lot by thrashing-about in the water. They got a head-start over those who chose to delicately enter the pool using the steps, and those who were too scared or too lazy to get in the water...well...they are still spectating from the sidelines.

Just do it.