Action is where all the possibilities live. And where learning lives. Without action, you always wonder what if. Without action, you don’t know. With action comes satisfaction – the satisfaction of knowing you tried, and maybe failed but learned. Or the satisfaction that you took action and succeeded. Action is required to know.
Action is where luck lives – you can’t get lucky without action. You have to step up to play. Playing is taking action. Launching the project, building the idea, executing on the vision. Actually doing the work, taking action. Putting in the reps at the gym, running the mile, doing the stretch, reading the book. Taking action, doing the thing you think about.
Analysis paralysis is the default for most. And knowing this, you have to be very cautious to avoid it. Ideas are a dime a dozen, execution of the idea is what makes it valuable. Because we don’t know what will work and what won’t, you have to take action often. Shoot for a 10-20% success rate, meaning you need to take action on 10 ideas before you expect anything to work. Think of action taking as learning. Even if the outcome isn’t what you expect, you learned, and that’s enough.
When you browse the web, people created what you’re browsing. When you’re browsing the library, people wrote the books you’re consuming. When you browse Tiktok, or Instagram, people created all the content you’re consuming. When you browse Walmart, people created all the products you see. Be a creator, not a consumer. You don’t have to create publicly or on social media, but create. Build stuff. And ideally, build stuff that is useful, that matters.
We only have a limited time to exist, why waste it working on stuff that doesn’t matter? Why waste your time if it doesn’t help you or someone with something? VCs are always trying to find founders who are creating the next big thing. They look for validation, they look for patterns of what makes a company succeed. They always say, solve problems. Solve other peoples problems. That is creating value, which is by definition why people pay for it.
People will pay for useful products and services, or things that solve their problems. There are a lot of problems in the world, help solve them. Take action to solve them. Work on the ones you find most interesting and rewarding. You’re going to do better work when you enjoy what you’re doing. Take action, it’s the only way change happens.
Once action is taken, learn. Humans learn through doing, not by thinking about doing or talking about doing. Your life is what you do. Take action on everything. Take action on caring for your body, improving your relationships, your mind, your environment, your skills. Take action on what you want to do in life – your hobbies, your traveling plans, your ideas.
Take action. If not now, when?


Patrick


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