I was speaking to an entrepreneur the other day. This guy was on fire. He was full of energy, ideas, passion, and was ready to conquer the world. He was sharing his new business idea with me. He is very clear on who he is and what he stands for, and I love that about him. As he lined out and shared his vision, and then told me the action plan he had mapped out to accomplish this vision and mission, I immediately knew he was not going to make it happen.

Let’s just call this businessman “Bob.” Bob and I have a long history together. He and I frequently have dinner together to exchange ideas and discuss business and life. Though not significantly successful, Bob has had a successful life. I’d even say that this is the main reason why he hasn’t been as successful as he could have been. Bob should stop talking and start working. If you don’t finish the final and most important step, “ACT, DO, WORK,” you won’t be able to have an impact on anything or anyone. It’s the WHAT in terms of concrete action that needs to take place to realize your goal.

Hallucination is vision without action or implementation. Though I’m not sure who said it, I’m taking credit for it because I enjoy the phrase. If Martin Luther King Jr. had his dream but accomplished nothing, just think. Just a fantasy, no protests or speeches. Imagine if as a nation we aspired to moon landing but did not put in the daily effort to make it a reality.

As entrepreneurs, we are blessed with the ability to dream big, think out side the box, innovate, and come up with some of the world’s most amazing solutions and fixes to problems. We still must get to work. From the minute we wake up to the minute we go to sleep, we must plan our daily activities that are congruent with who we are, what we stand for, what we vision, and align with our plan. If not, we are selling ourselves and others short, period.

Look at your calendar. Is there a lot of action there? If yes, are the activities consistent with your identity, values, vision, and strategy? Are you being held responsible for these activities by anyone else? The good thing about action is that after enough time, averages and metrics start to show up. If the strategy is failing but you are still acting and working toward your objective, you have data to work with. To get back on track, you can tweak, adapt, recalibrate, and finally make the necessary corrections. This, however, only functions if you are acting.

Are you acting? Do you know what you need to do? Are you still waiting to get to work?

Get to work! Make an Impact! Do Your Be!