As the saying goes: “Procrastination is the thief of time.” Far too many great ideas have fallen flat or lost momentum, because the options that were open disappeared during the decision making process.
Almost all entrepreneurs will acknowledge that success in business comes from timing. So, when you get an opportunity, you've got to go for it wholeheartedly, not wait in the wings for some imaginary perfect time to materialise.
There is no such thing as perfect timing or perfect decision making – only hindsight can determine whether or not you’ve made the ‘right call’. As Marie Beynon Ray said: “Indecision is fatal. It is better to make a wrong decision than build up a habit of indecision. If you’re wallowing in indecision, you certainty can’t act – and action is the basis of success.”
Never wanting to let an opportunity slip, I earned the nickname Dr Yes. The way I see it life is more interesting when you say yes, and if somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you are not sure you can do it, you should say yes anyway – then learn how to do it later.
Some people would say we made a snap decision when starting Virgin Atlantic. Virgin was in the music industry, and we had no idea how to run an aviation business. But look where we are today! We saw an opportunity, jumped on it, and have grown from one plane, to three innovative airlines. Had we thought too much about it, we would never have made the decision to move forward and set about creating change.
Even if things do fall short and the decision turns out to be not so great, you stand to learn so much more from making a bad decision than you do from not making a decision at all. After all, failure is life’s greatest teacher.
What are you waiting for? Go on and seize the moment – there’s no time like the present, no better day than today, or no righter time than right now.
When has making the wrong decision worked out better than making no decision for you? I’d like to hear about it in the comments below.
NOTE CREDIT: https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/bad-decision-better-no-decision
