Action Trumps Everything

Leadership Summit 2011

Session Two
“Action Trumps Everything” by Len Schlesinger

Getting our vision from the reality of the Here to the possibilities of the There…

*Martin Luther King… “I have a dream”
-It took Martin Luther King 3-4 years of smashing the Here (current reality) to get to the 

There (energizing people with the vision of what could be)

*We must be clear about the aspects of Here before we can go There

*We get a vision…We are excited about a reality that does not exist and those whom we are sharing our vision with are quite happy right where they are at…so how do we move them from the Here to the There? You must show people how unacceptable current reality is before you can move people to a new, unknown reality.

*Entrepreneurship has the power to go a long way in providing for the kind of future we aspire we want to have.

*Believe in the future by creating first.

*Most stories being told about successful entrepreneurs are complete nonsense…not a little, but complete.

-Many entrepreneurs who write a book about their success are actually telling a story they would like to read about their life
-Many do not start out with a Big idea
-Many do not have a sharply defined vision
-It is not genetic

*Entrepreneurship is a discipline and can be learned

*We are all entrepreneurs, but too few of us get to practice it.

*We must reinvent ourselves at least 3-5 times in our career.

*Entrepreneurs realize that they cannot predict the future.

-If you can’t predict the future than create it.

*Start with things you care about
-Not where are the good opportunities, but rather what do I want to do…what am I passionate about.
-You see, in order to get from the Here to the There, we must have a passion for the vision we want people to get excited about.

*Entrepreneurs see what is available to them and then they act.
-You can sit and think, but in order to move to the There, you must act upon your thinking
-pay for only what you can afford and want to
-take small steps forward with what you have at hand

*We all have the capacity to make a difference

*Have friends and resources nearby to help

*You can sell people or you can enroll people

Why don’t people move?

*They are caught up with what they are trying to do…Don’t worry about what you want to do and start worrying about what your next step will be.

*We don’t want to take action cause we are afraid of failure.
-60% of “smart” people fail
-failure=learning things that no one knows
-failure=try again with experience
-more ventures fail then succeed

Do you want to be an Entrepreneur?

*Know what you want
*Stop obsessing with what you need to do and start with the means at hand
*Be alert and make reality your friend
*Take steps according to your means and what you can afford to pay
*Bring other people with you
*Be flexible with what you want and how you do it

This system…

Gets more people trying to do things and gets them to do things sooner and gets them to do it more times and gets them to failing sooner, which enables the start of another attempt and gives people the opportunity for multiple simultaneous adventures.

“Action Trumping Everything…you get more times at bat in the same elapsed time, thus making your personal success much more likely and sooner and increasing the aggregate number of successful ventures for society as a whole. Thereby taking us all on an incredible powerful journey from the HERE’s that we have smashed to the THERE’s that we would like to live with.”