One of the most important words for me is “Think” or “Thinking”. This is where the seeds of pretty much everything are sown in our career as well as life. I personally invest a lot of time in thinking and it is an important part of my Time Asset Allocation. One thing to note, it is most effective when you set aside a specific time to Think. It is when you are thinking about your business or a strategy or content or about a decision on something.

However, the one thing that makes me want to shake up people with is when they say (without meaning it) “Let me Think”. 99% of the time it is used as an excuse not to take a decision. It is not that you are going to spend the next 2 months thinking about this. Let us say you have been given an offer that can really change your business and life. Someone is willing to stick their neck out and help you. Someone is taking all the risk for you in lieu of future returns. All you have to do is say to yourself “Let me see if this works and try it. Take a Decision and Act. The best is it coming at no cost.” Despite this, some people say, “Let me think”.

If you are not convinced of something, just say “Thank you, but I am not interested”. The best response is to say NO. I value people who Say NO as they protect our time and get us to focus on things that are really important. You might not feel nice when a prospect says No to you but he is far better than someone who is indecisive, keeps you hanging and gives you a feeling that you have a prospective client.

I will explain this with an example. My team member spoke to an IFA from Kolkata 3 months back and he told my colleague “Let me think”. It is 3 months now and this gentleman is still thinking. Meanwhile many others who made decisions have made tremendous progress in the same time frame. They have signed up new clients, got additional assets, and grown the firm in the same phase when this Kolkata gentleman is attending webinar after webinar, appearing to be busy and pretending to think. I told my colleague a wonderful line by Nick Murray “You can’t do more good for people than they want done for them”.

The next time you hear this from a prospect or from anyone ask them the following question “Just out of curiosity, what is it that you need to think about? Maybe, I can help you with it.” I can assure you that most people will not have an answer. This is because they are just hiding behind this line as they are unable to decide.

Indecision then leads to Inaction. This is the root cause of problems for most IFA’s today. Like I have said previously, growth is not an IFA’s real problem. It is an outcome of deeper and fundamental issues of Indecision and Inaction.

Leaders are paid to do 3 things “Think, Decide and Act”. All of us are leaders and our role is to play a leadership role not in our firm but more importantly in the lives of our clients. Nothing will move the needle in our life unless we take a Decision and Act.

I am thus sharing a simple framework for taking decisions the way champions do and act. Champions take a decision by asking themselves

1. What is the worst that can happen if I do this?
2. What is the best that can happen if I do this?

They then say, “Let me do this because I know the worst: I would have learned something for sure”. My last week’s Nano touched on this aspect. This is not about taking stupid risks like betting everything in a casino, it is about taking calculated risk.

The next time you say to yourself “Let me think“, set aside a time for 30 minutes, ask yourself these questions (what’s the worst and the best that can happen) and then make a decision. If you need any help to clarify some questions, get it clarified, then take a clean decision (Yes or No), communicate it and then just do it.

An ability to take Decisions and Act will set you apart and make you a truly world class professional. There is a Champion hidden in all of us. It is up to each one of us whether to bring our champion-self out or to let our champion-self hidden from us and the world.