Herman School of Business
Doing Versus Watching...Get in the Game
As a little kid you can surely remember buying that first property in the game of Monopoly. And winning any game you played brought a sense of exhilaration. Maybe it was beating your Dad at checkers. Or miniature golf. If you just sit there with your eyes closed and go back to the memory of that moment, I defy you to not smile.
We all love the feeling winning brings. The sense of accomplishment and achieving a goal. But you know what made that feeling so wonderful. It didn’t come until after many losses. Very few people win the first time out. That first try is a little intimidating because part of us wants to prevent the feeling of losing. But how will you ever get to the win until you suffer the losses?
In business there are doers and watchers. I have always been a doer and can’t ever understand the watchers. Even if I just wash the car, I gleam as much as the car does. Why is that? Because I can actually see that I did a good job. Because I can see the shine on the car’s finish, not there just 30 minutes ago when I started. Now, to be sure, I have failed at many things in business, and in everyday life. But every day I get up and have a list of things I want to do in large part to feel that sense of accomplishment.
So to the doers I say…hats off. You already know what I am talking about.
And to the watchers I say…start with doing anything different in your life…anything small at all…and do something about that everyday…and each day you will feel so much better. As Lisa Haneberg teaches in her blogs and books, you must “flap your wings” a little each day and eventually the impact will be profound in your life.
HERMANISM # 2
Study and you shall learn.
- Posted: 20 August 2007
- Comments: 3
- Category: Starting a business
Comments
Well said. When I think back on the things fear used to stop me from doing, it makes me so much more determined to move forward with grace.
Written by Tinu on 23 August 2007
Hi John, Tinu shared that you’re now on Facebook – welcome! Thanks for sharing with others your school of hard knocks experiences – it’ll move folks out of fear (we hope) and step into the freedom of doing and achieving! Cheers!
Written by Sherman Hu on 23 August 2007
i find ‘doing’ anything right away takes real confidance and innitiative – for me, taking the time to let the wheels turn a little helps in creating a strategy to getting things going. doing is much more rewarding than watching – much more fun too
Written by carla on 22 August 2007