Daily Inspiration: “Your ability to make excuses for your inaction is exceeded only by the failure that results!”

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“Your ability to make excuses for your inaction is exceeded only by the failure that results!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Excuses are the foundation for most failures. You didn’t succeed because it was someone else’s fault; if only events hadn’t conspired against you; clearly you were doing things right but gremlins got in the way; you didn’t see the trends that might impact you. It’s an endless list, isn’t it!

Give me a failure, and I’ll give you an excuse!

Twenty years ago, around the time of the recession that came with the dot.com collapse, I noticed that many of my global clients were falling prey to the inaction that comes from the excuse of waiting for certainty and clarity – they were suffering from the sin of indecision! And the fact is, they were so indecisive that I coined a phrase that has stuck with me since that moment: aggressive indecision! I wrote entire newspaper articles around the issue; spoke about it relentlessly on stage, and covered it in my blog with numerous posts.

The issue was so significant that it became a cornerstone of my innovation insight, based around what I called the Innovation Killers. Take a look at the list!

The Innovation Killers

And now, it’s back – and it’s worse because the excuses that surround inaction with respect to Covid-19 are quite staggering.

Revisiting the Innovation Killers in the Era of COVID-19

Consider the first issue: #1 Deferring Action!

Your attitude:

We’ll wait until this ends! It will soon be over! I’ll just wait till things get back to normal! We’ll set a date in stone for a return to normal – and things will become normal.

Your reality:

  • It’s not going to end anytime soon
  • The date you pick to ‘go back to normal’ will continue to change
  • Things won’t go back to ‘where they were’ – this is a historical, transformative, shift
  • You can expect volatility, upheaval and more well into 2022 or 2023 and beyond

One of the unique impacts of Covid-19 is that the corporate world has split in two : those who are aggressively charging ahead to transform their operations and reality – and those who are waiting for it to ‘end.’

For the latter, their indecision has suddenly increased with the news of successful vaccine trials; many now think we will quickly return to normal, and so they can avoid doing the hard work necessary to transform their existence! That’s not how it works, as the timelines are complex.

Are you doing the things today that help you avoid the decisions that you need to make?

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THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he
covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

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