It’s time to make a decision...what are you waiting for?
I know there are a lot of you stuck on the fence today with indecision. You can’t decide on which side you’d rather be. I want to talk to you about this because I know it’s killing you right now.
Sometimes I go out to eat, and the people I’m with need to look at the menu for 30 minutes before they order. I’m sitting there like “Hey, you’re not going to be making mortgage payments on this purchase! Just order something!” They say, “But what if I don't like it?” And my response is, “Well, what if you love it? You'll never know until you try it.” See, sometimes we're straddling that fence, and we can't make a decision. We let too much time go by while we’re trying to decide. What happens if you don’t like the food that you try? Well, don't order it again! Now at least you know you don’t like it. I ordered escargot years ago, thinking “I'm not sure if I like this stuff, but I am going to try it.” Guess what, I loved it! On the last cruise I went on, I ended up getting two orders of it every night. If I had never made the decision to try it, I would have missed out on something I didn’t know I loved.
Let me tell you a secret:
In your indecisiveness, you've made the decision not to make a decision. Don’t do that anymore!
I love that old cartoon The Roadrunner. You ever see that coyote? He'll stand at the fork of the road, looking left, then right, trying to decide which way to go, and then a train runs over him. He’s lying face down, and the roadrunner goes “beep, beep” and runs right on by. I want to be the roadrunner. I always want to make right decisions, but I want to move quickly.
Some of you guys are letting the best things in life pass you by because you can't decide. You’re too busy asking yourself questions. Don’t be afraid. I don’t believe in failure. You either succeed, or you learn, but if you don’t try you never even have a chance.
Michael Jordan is famous for making game-winning shots, but here’s what you may not know: Michael missed more than 9,000 shots in his career, lost almost 300 games, and there were 26 times that he was trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. But nobody talks about that! They only speak of the incredible clutch performances and dazzling buzzer-beater shots with defenders draped all over him. That’s what people remember about Michael Jordan. He always said, “Give me the ball.” He wasn’t afraid of making the decision to take the game-winning shot. Wayne Gretzky echoed that mentality when he said: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
That's the same way I am in business. “Give me the ball.” I want that opportunity. I’ll try, and I may not succeed, but I’ll never know if I don’t try. What I do know is this: If you don’t take a shot, you don’t even have a chance.
When you consistently don’t make decisions, you put your friends and family through agony. They’re tired of hearing you talk about your plan day in and day out and not see you take any action. There’s a life full of adventure out there. You may not have all the answers today, but you’ll never get them if you don’t decide to try something. Don’t make a decision that puts your family in jeopardy, but don’t lay there and let your dreams pass you by either. Don’t miss an opportunity because you’re afraid of what someone else might say or that it might not go as you planned.
In business, people always told me “You can't do that; it won't work.” But I never listened to the naysayers. It may not work, but I’m going to try it anyway. If it doesn’t work, I’ll pivot and do something different. I’ll never let the fear of something not succeeding hold me back from opportunities of a lifetime. I want to experience an amazing life. We only get one!
You don't have to do everything conventionally. Don’t let yourself be average. My mom always told me “Average is just as close to the bottom as it is the top.”
If you don’t make a decision, you’re making the decision to settle for average. If you want to be average, go ahead and sit up in the bleachers and watch everyone else play the game. They're going to live an amazing and abundant life. Isn’t that what you want, too?
Make today the day you decide to achieve your dreams.
I know many of you reading this now will get up and make that decision. Make the decision and don’t look back. I want you to live life to its fullest. Run right past that doubt and indecisiveness and be like the roadrunner.
“Beep, Beep.”
