Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Are You Planning for a Future That Never Comes?
I went to a bookstore today. It's closing down at the end of December, so we went to check out their clearance sale.

While I was there, I happened to pass a woman who was pulling books off the home decorating shelf and frantically paging through them. As I passed, she wailed, "I wish I knew if I was ever going to be interested in decorating. These prices are great."

I had to chuckle to myself. Her comment struck home. How many times I've gathered information in preparation for sometime in the future when I would finally put all that knowledge together to accomplish something great in that field. I've done that with a lot of plans.

But the truth is, that endlessly gathering info does you no good unless you use it. Even if you don't know as much as you wish you did, you're better off acting on the knowledge that you have than you are waiting... and waiting... and waiting... until you think you know enough to begin.

Because there's no way around it—your most important learning comes from taking action, not from books. The theory that we learn from books does nothing more than give us a foundation on which we can build that true knowledge that comes from actually dealing with and overcoming the real problems that we face.

So if you're not doing so now, take action. Don't wait until you think you know everything you need to succeed. The real world situations you face will force you learn what you haven't from books—or will make clear to you what specific areas you need to study more.

But the most effective learning always involves doing.
Jeff