One of the great paradoxes in business (and life), is that the only way to succeed more often, is to increase your so-called failure rate.

The challenge here, is that many business owners have not yet figured this out. They avoid taking action on their ideas, unless they are convinced, in advance, the idea will work out exactly how they want it to. That’s an exceptionally high bar to set. So they tend to leave most of their ideas on the drawing board. Then kick themselves later, when they see someone else succeed with the same idea.

Broadly, there are only 3 potential outcomes after you take action on a business idea. And you can benefit massively from all of them.

1. It might work out just how you wanted, right out the box! A quick win. An instant hit.
2. It might work later, after you make some adjustments. By putting an idea into action, you attract feedback. Feedback allows you to tweak and improve. And improvements lead to success.
3. It might flop. If it does, you get to learn from it and invest that learning into future opportunities. These failure lessons help you build an invaluable reservoir of feedback, which leads to better and better decision making. This is how ongoing, accelerated progress is made. (It’s also how we learned to ride a bike, despite wobbling and falling off at the beginning).

When you truly understand the value of feedback, it becomes a lot easier to take action with your ideas and insights. That’s because you will have eliminated any lingering, irrational fear of failure.

Failure is feedback. And feedback is your friend.

Those who try to eliminate the possibility of failing, only eliminate the possibility of success.

In every industry, during every economy, there are businesses that thrive. There’s no mystery as to why this happens. In fact, we can choose to become one of them. And that’s what today’s message is all about.

I’m very specifically referring to the business owners who:

• Have the courage to do things their way. As Warren Buffett says, the best investors sell when everyone else is buying, and buy when everyone else is selling.
• Have the courage to turn away the wrong kind of projects and clients. They know that no business can thrive without a strong client base or customer base.
• Have the courage to develop innovative, new products or services.
• Have the courage to refuse to do average work. They know that people judge them based on the quality of their work. So they set the bar high and increase their value.
• Have the courage to set deadlines and deliver as promised. They’ve figured out that this is one of the best ways to earn the trust of their clients.
• Have the courage to charge 100% or 500% more than the industry average.
• Have the courage to focus on what they want. They’ve learned that we tend to move in the direction of what we focus on. So they refuse to focus on what they fear.
• Have the courage to lead. When everyone else is waiting for someone to take action, these business owners lead by example.

Time and again, I find that the most common factor behind successful business owners and entrepreneurs, is courage.

The role of courage in business success

Fact: A courageous business owner will always outperform a fearful one. This holds true, no matter how smart the fearful business owner is.

For instance, many of the most fearful and least successful business owners I have met or studied, were very highly educated. However, as former US president Calvin Coolidge famously said, “The world is full of educated derelicts“. They were great at detail. Wonderful with research, yet lousy when it came to leaving their comfort zones. They lacked the courageous mindset of an entrepreneur.

Smart and courageous

Conversely, Apple was co-founded by a courageous university drop-out. And Steve Jobs was not alone. Dell founder Michael Dell never graduated. Nor did Henry Ford, Wendy’s CEO or Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. (Ellison is worth an estimated $54 Billion, around 10 times more than Sir Richard Branson). Smart people for sure. That goes without saying.

My point is that their lack of academic qualifications had no negative impact on their success, and that gaining academic qualifications is no guarantee of success.

In the 25 years since starting my business, I’ve worked with thousands of business owners. I’ve found that nothing can stop a smart, courageous business owner from succeeding. And that nothing can stop a smart, fearful business owner from being average… at best.

The good news is that courage is NOT the absence of fear.

Courage is a choice we make.

Courage is how we choose to respond when faced with the risk that comes with every genuine opportunity. It’s how we choose to respond when faced with the current uncertainty.

And we can choose to start acting with courage, whenever we wish.

It’s simply this: “In business, the winners get moving”.

Here’s why.

• Every business owner has ideas and occasionally great ideas.
• Every business owner is presented with opportunities to succeed.
• Every business owner can choose to be a leader.
• Every business owner can instigate, rather than wait for someone else to move.
• Every business owner has potential to be better today than they were yesterday.
• And every business owner has the same 24-hours available to them every day.

It’s what we DO that counts.

• Not our intentions.
• Not our network of business contacts.
• Not our cutting edge technology.
• Not our plans.
• Not our targets.
• Not our qualifications.
• Not our potential.
• Not our competitive edge.
• Not our ingenuity.
• Not our skills.

Action always, always, always precedes success.

That’s why in business, the winners get moving.