Photo: Courtesy of Kim Perell
Kim Perell is quite the every-woman: entrepreneur, angel investor, tech CEO, the list goes on. And now she can add national best-selling author to that running list with her new book, The Execution Factor: The One Skill that Drives Success. While on her journey to success, Perell came to realize that the difference between success and failure is execution. Instead of letting your fears of failure stop you from pursuing your goals, she urges people to turn their ideas into real projects.
Perell is hoping her knowledge and experiences will inspire others to execute and achieve their dreams, too. In the words of Perell herself, “execution is the ability to do and get results, to keep moving forward to achieve your vision and goals, despite the obstacles that lay ahead.”
Read on for an exclusive exert from The Execution Factor.
Chapter 11—Prioritize Action: Better to Start Than Procrastinate
Despite my entrepreneurial DNA, I admit I used to think the actions that lead to success followed a fairly straight line to the top. Naïve, right? As a teenager and a college grad, I believed a successful life was going to be simple: I would go to college, get a job, and start a family—each a step up on that straight line to success. This turned out to be far from reality. But that’s okay because success would have been only a fraction as fulfilling as it has been if the path had been linear. Success required me to constantly seize every opportunity to take first steps forward and then the next one, no matter how unpleasant they were.
Back before I knew success was that messy line to the top, one of my mentors asked me why I saw everything as a step-by-step progression. “Could you see it and do it on parallel paths?” he asked. I never looked at action the same way again.
Prioritizing your vision is connected to prioritizing the actions that directly relate to executing that vision. That correlation is why I keep my vision posted at the top of my to-do list to make sure the things at the top of my list are connected to it. Unfortunately, too many of us never even get to our to-do lists. A lot of research has been done with college students, and the data shows that as many as 70 percent of them procrastinate. While that number drops after college, up to 25 percent of people admit to significant procrastination as adults.
Some researchers have divided these procrastinators into types. The first is the “arousal” procrastinator: Arousal procrastinators are people who need the rush of adrenaline created by the urgency to execute and thus wait until the last minute. The second type of procrastinator is more dangerous to execution: the “avoidant” procrastinator.
Avoidant procrastinators can’t engage in the task. This is often because they don’t think they have the ability to do it or that it simply does not inspire them to action. I’ll address doubting your ability or lack of inspiration shortly. But there is another big reason that gets in the way of taking that first step and all the other steps going on around you. You have reasons for not acting:
I have to do this for my boss.
My client needs this now.
My kid needs a ride.
I’m hungry.
I can’t afford it right now.
I’m tired.
Every one of those reasons may be true, important, and even urgent. But one thing is for sure: reasons do not motivate us to act on our vision. They only lead to answers—usually reasons why not. That is excuses. Remember: Passion is about suffering for vision—no excuses.
Action is about prioritizing that first step and the next so you hold yourself accountable—no excuses! Even if it means working late when you’re tired and you would rather be in bed watching your favorite TV show. It’s of course much harder to do that when someone else—be it your boss, client, or family—is holding you accountable for your actions (or “nonactions”), but there are plenty of hours left in the day when no one is holding you accountable but you. But you must. Undoubtedly, this can be hard to do when so many different things are pulling you in different directions. I get it, but you have to prioritize and persevere.
If You Keep Doing What Is Comfortable and Easiest, You’ll Get Stuck
Most people don’t procrastinate enjoyable activities, like going on a vacation. We procrastinate when we are faced with uncertainty or actions that we believe will in some way be unpleasant or have unknown outcomes. We procrastinate delivering bad news or doing something difficult because the easiest actions give us the satisfaction of getting something done. But let’s recall the words of President John F. Kennedy, whose vision to reach the moon kicked off the work on these traits of execution: “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
Think about your procrastination. It probably occurs when you have to take actions you don’t want to take or you are unsure about, or they are outside of your comfort zone. In most cases, putting it off only makes the situation worse and makes the first step even harder because you’re thinking about it too much!
Action Pulse Check
Think about the last time you had to deliver bad news. What happened when you finally delivered it?
Now take some hard-to-deliver news (no matter how small it is) and deliver it. Find the right place to do it— preferably in person but if not, on the phone and if necessary by e-mail (not text). Take note of how you feel afterward.
Stop just checking boxes on your to-do list, and instead do the hardest thing first no matter how unpleasant it might be. I’m not against doing certain tasks because you love doing them, but it usually means you are putting off doing something more difficult. No one ever failed to achieve their goals because they did the harder thing first instead of laundry. I prioritized my vision and passion and created the opportunity by doing difficult, even intimidating, things. I gave them quality time and higher emotional value, and I was willing to suffer for them. Then, I acted and persisted no matter how hard or unpleasant the actions were.
People have never achieved their goals and reached their visions because they did the easiest things first.
I remember as a teenager my grandfather wanted my sister, brother, and me to read a new Rush Limbaugh book. We all loved our grandfather, but that wasn’t going to happen. It wasn’t about Rush’s politics. It was because his book was 300 pages long, and we had better things to do, including nothing at all. As a teenager, “nothing” was better than the unpleasantness of reading that book.
Then I had a vision that made my grandfather’s vision mine. I told him if he paid me to read it, I would write him a summary. I ended up making $20. I had just found a way to make it a priority and take the first step.
Every journey starts with that first page—that first step to your goal:
If you want to be a chef, take a cooking class.
If you want to be an artist, take an art class.
If you want to start a business, go do the research.
If you want to write a book, write the first sentence.
If you want your grandfather to pay you to read a book, make a deal.
And what’s after that first step? Your next step—and every step after that! I cannot emphasize this enough: It’s really easy to get stuck in an action by getting too comfortable with any step in the process. The goal is to keep moving forward and making progress to the goal or finish line. Do not repeat the same step over again because that gets boring!
You probably have heard some version of this line before: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. In action, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to move forward. Think of it this way: it is entirely possible to run 26.2 miles—the length of a marathon—by running 1 mile, turning around, running back to the start, and then running the first mile again about nine times. You cover the same distance and use up just as much energy as the regular marathon without ever advancing past the first mile.
The Next Steps to Realizing Your Vision
Executing in business is all about growth. But doing the same thing over and over only leads to managing the growth you have, not evolving to create new steps to act and opportunities to grow and execute your vision.
Even I have made this mistake. While no one has ever said to me, “Kim, you need to act!” about something I cared about, I have missed some next steps. Not because I repeated steps or hesitated or thought the action was too risky but because I didn’t go far enough, see the need to scale in my next steps, or failed to put more money in. Other times, I acted and realized too late that I didn’t understand the whole picture when I thought I had planned everything out.
A couple of times that actually caused my entire company pain—actual pain.
As a team bonding experience, I decided a great exercise to help people “break through” their fears and increase their confidence would be breaking wooden boards karate style. None of us knew karate, but we were told in the instructions we read that five-year-olds could push through one of the boards. How much fun would this be?
Everyone was into it. “You can do it!” we all screamed as employee after employee approached the boards, brought their hands crashing down, and . . . failed to break a single board.
No one could do it.
This exercise was supposed to be about confidence, not contusions. Yet that’s what everyone was getting as they failed to break the board and grabbed their hands in pain. Turned out we had the boards cut the wrong way. You apparently have to have the wood cut with the grain for this to work. We didn’t. We were trying to break boards for bonding, but we had failed to read that part of the instructions, let alone specify the right way to cut the boards at Home Depot!
To avoid breaking more bones in the future, I have learned that next steps often require more planning and focus than you think—a more holistic vision to ensure that you have identified the path to your vision and know what you don’t know.
You must understand this too:
Six Things You Should Do Before You Act
Identify additional action steps.
Create a time frame.
Build in accountability.
Anticipate possible obstacles.
Create a list of resources.
Create a review process.
1. Identify Additional Action Steps
Identify the steps that will enable you to realize your vision. Then plan out your steps in sequence, knowing that the next step is the most important and that subsequent steps might change as your journey evolves.
Be ready and open to pivot when you need to. That way you won’t miss the opportunities right in front of you and those that offer the next opportunities.
2. Create a Time Frame
Set realistic time frames for completing the next step and subsequent steps.
The balance here is in creating time frames that give you enough time to make it happen—but also put enough pressure on you to get going. Too far out and it might be hard to get started; too close and it might feel like too much pressure.
3. Build in Accountability
Ensure that steps are completed. Commit to someone or something.
Is it a friend, a colleague, boss? Whatever you do, make sure you have some measures for accountability to encourage you to stay on track.
4. Anticipate Possible Obstacles
How might you overcome obstacles and anticipate what you don’t know? Think about what might get in the way or stop you.
Don’t dwell on this, but at least consider what the obstacles might be and how you will deal with them should they arise.
5. Create a List of Resources
Be specific on what you will need to execute—and don’t lowball! My grandfather taught me this rule when I was young, and I think about it all the time. Everything will be twice as hard, take twice as long, and cost twice as much as you think it will.
Consider everything you’re going to need for effective action, and make the next step happen. Do you need money, and if so, how much? Do you need people, and if so, what are their skills or respective roles? Do you need equipment, and if so, where can you get it?
6. Create a Review Process
You need to review to keep properly focused on progress. Every action is a potential lesson that can inform you about your business. Record your actions and the results, and make sure you measure what you do and how it turns out.
People who lead with action will find taking these steps frustrating—we’d rather just do. But we must review. Take a few minutes to think about them, and answer those questions. As you do, be aware: if you lead with action, the willingness to step in and take on a challenge may have gotten you where you are today, but it also can be your downfall, especially if it leads you away from your vision and isolates you from others.
Action Check: Questions for Self-Reflection
There’s no substitute for taking action. Anything else is just an excuse.
What actions will you take?
What are your first and next steps?
How will you prioritize them?
How have you let excuses and fear of rejection stop you in the past? How can you get past that in the future?
Copyright 2019 by Kim Perell. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part2 of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Like what you’ve read? Purchase the book below:
The Execution Factor: The One Skill that Drives Success by Kim Perell
$20
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