I have reviewed hundreds of businesses over the last twenty years from many different industries. Some struggle to identify their future customers. Others starve to death due to lack of cash in the bank to pay the bills. I’ve even seen poor leadership. But one of the leading causes of death regarding business growth is procrastination.

Leaders often procrastinate for many reasons. Some are just lazy as hell. Procrastination can occur in companies with great resources and cash as well as small struggling businesses. I have seen innovators create high tech devices and Apps that never make it to the retail market because they spend all of their time and resources developing new widgets and cool features instead of spending time and money getting their product into retail outlets or wholesale distribution. I see this as mental procrastination because the innovator is often waiting for someone to sweep him off his feet with a huge check to buy their idea even though none have sold. BIG mistake. NO SALES EQUALS LITTLE TO NO VALUE to an investor. It is rare that you will find an investor who will buy an idea without subscribers or sales. Ideas are a dime a dozen without a track record of performance.

Procrastination is also driven by fear of failure. Standing frozen like a statue while your technology ages, or your movie idea is produced and distributed by another producer will guarantee failure. Countless movie scripts are written each year about the same story idea. Which writer will see his script made into a movie? I’ll bet on the one that finishes theirs on a timeline and gets it into the hands of producers looking for film ideas and not the guy who waits for his phone to ring. In order to overcome fear driven procrastination, you must immerse yourself in your industry and remove any lingering question mark that may keep you from pushing forward. If you are bad at sales then hire a sales person. If you stink at pitching your idea, then join Toastmasters or hire a pitch woman to help you build excitement in the board room. JUST MOVE FORWARD! List your prospects from one to ten in order of importance. Number one will be the big fish you want to land and ten would be a business relationship that you can live with or without. Start your warm up round with your number ten and perfect your presentation before you reach your number one prospect. You will get better and gain valuable information about your approach before you ruin an opportunity with your big fish. This exercise should remove most of the fear that keeps you frozen. One of my favorite quotes is MOTIVATION SHOULD OVERPOWER HESITATION. Excitement is great but execution is priceless. Run at the speed of business.

Subscribe to The Daily Life Coach Blog – The Daily Life Coach on Facebook @TheVictorYoung on Twitter and IG Linkedin – https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoryoung