Knowing the Answer Is Not Enough
Change is dependent on action.
Knowing is just a start. Change requires us to consistently act.
Many times we know the answer, even when it comes to helping ourselves. We know what we should eat, how we should spend our time, which conversation we need to have, and which decision we keep avoiding. Yet we procrastinate and delay.
That delay is not free. Ultimately it is costing us the opportunity, along with the additional cost and risk that builds while we wait.
Acting is not the same as continuing
Even when we do act, and then don’t see results, we stop prematurely. We walk away just before the effort begins to pay back, losing both the original effort and the potential opportunity.
The work was done. The investment was made. It simply was not given the time to return anything.
Pushing on is not the same as moving forward
Then, even if we keep pushing, we get tired and lose momentum. Some of that comes from wrong choices. Some comes from failing and learning the hard way, one lesson at a time, on our own.
Persistence matters. But persistence alone does not protect us from heading in the wrong direction, or from running out of energy before we arrive.
The real price of guidance
This is where the right mentor, consultant or advisor changes the equation. Not because they know answers we could never find, but because they help us act on what matters, keep going when results are slow, and avoid the wrong turns that drain our energy.
So the fee of a mentor, consultant or advisor is:
- 10% of the benefit from the commercial success of the goal
- plus the increase in the probability of hitting the goal
- plus the speed to achieve the goal
- plus the added benefit of reaching the goal on time
- plus the risks that were managed along the way
When we look at it this way, the question is no longer what the advice costs. The question is what reaching the goal is worth, and what failing to reach it would cost.
For a valuable goal, mission or project, the right mentors, consultants and advisors are never expensive.
The expensive part is knowing the answer and not acting on it.
So what do you already know that you are still waiting to act on?
And what is that delay quietly costing you?
