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Act first, think second, regret third!

Updated November 2012

By Jim Connolly | August 31, 2010

If you take a look through the settings on Gmail, there’s a feature which allows you to “undo” the sending of your email and stop the email being delivered.  This feature has been so popular, that last week they announced it has been extended and improved.  It seems a huge number of people send emails and then decide they have made a mistake.  They act first, think second.

They click send – THEN they think about what they just did!

Act first, think second

Many of the marketing problems people talk to me about, are examples of this act first, think second approach to business development.  For example, they send an email or 2 to a list of prospective  customers, get little if any response and then ask me why; rather than speak with me first or do some research.  Had they done a little marketing research, they would have discovered that one-off emails seldom work.  They would have seen that they need an email marketing campaign if they want worthwhile results; where each email builds upon the previous one.  Marketing in isolation is rarely effective.

There is an old saying that advises us; “act in haste, repent at leisure.”

Yes, it’s good to get things done, but not if speed comes before quality. Otherwise, we risk confusing movement with progress and end up working hard, yet achieving little by way of results.

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Jim Connolly

Hi! I'm Jim Connolly and I use creative marketing to help small business owners increase sales, boost profits and build amazing businesses. Read more here.

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