I recently quoted Dr. John Maxwell in my post 24 Things Successful Leaders Are Thinking when he said, “99 percent of great ideas never become a reality. They just stay in the mind. It’s not the thought you have in the shower. It’s what you do with it after you dry off.”
Sadly, many leaders have an inability to effectively follow through. We will never know how many dreams God placed in leaders’ hearts that went unfulfilled.
One of the primary reasons leaders do not act is FEAR. This may surprise you, but recently, Bryan Miles, co-founder of MAG Bookkeeping, discussed this topic in detail. The following are his thoughts:
“Feeling great about a new idea is awesome. Dealing with the feeling of impossibility about your new idea … well, that isn’t so great. And that is where a lot of great people with great ideas get hung up and never jump (aka take the leap).
If you’ve ever balked at an idea that you felt passionate about … you won’t like what I am about to tell you.
YOUR NEXT BIG THING IN LIFE IS SIMPLY A DECISION TO DO IT.
That’s it. A decision. A decision to act. To take a step. Move forward. I beg you, please don’t throw away any ideas because you think they are impossible. Just make a decision to achieve it, and do it.
Yes, there will be plenty of days ahead where you must critically think through your next steps, get funding, find people, sell and grind it out. BUT, for now … let those things wait. They’ll come soon enough. I’ll never forget when I made my decision to jump. It was in a marina in Seattle. That moment in time changed me.
I talk with a lot of people with “silent regret” because at the moment they had a great idea … they paused too long, felt it impossible, too daunting … and fear pulled them back from the edge and regret anchored in their soul. It’s a shame because the world needs talented minds connected to great ideas to solve social problems, disrupt old-thinking industries, challenge models and create good.
Be brave. Make a decision to act. Your next big thing in life is truly simply just a decision to do it.
As an entrepreneur, Bryan and his wife, Shannon, know a lot about taking risks and moving forward on good ideas. One of their organizations, MAG Bookkeeping, has become the gold standard of virtual bookkeepers. This would have never happened if they would not have thought outside-the-box and then had the courage to launch this organization.
What idea do you need to “jump” or “launch”? I pray you have the courage to do so today.
