Commentary by James A. Crumbaugh III
RISMEDIA, January 19, 2009-I have found over the years that many Realtors and business people spend their entire lives suffering from a disease that I call “getting ready to get ready.” They have such an immense fear of either starting a new project or a horrible fear of success, that they spend all their time worrying about every little detail and then they use that as an excuse to never start on a new project.
So let me tell you a little story about the disease called “getting ready to get ready.”
In 1995, my wife Ginger and I moved to a marina in San Diego where all the hopeful sailboat cruisers docked their boats prior to going cruising. From this marina sailors would take off to all points on the globe. In 1996 we took off for Florida aboard our 41′ sailboat that lacked every modern electronic tool available. In this marina where we were staying there were half a dozen sailboats with their owners aboard that had already been in the marina for three years or more getting ready to get ready. Each year they postponed leaving on their cruise because they didn’t think a minor system was ready. Every one of these boats and owners were 10 times more ready to take off into the wild Pacific Ocean than we were. Their boats were newer, they were better equipped, and they had all the electronics.
So finally November of 1996 arrives. It’s when all the cruisers leave San Diego to head south to Cabo San Lucas and points beyond. My wife Ginger and I were heading to Florida.
These cruisers that were getting ready to get ready and had already been at the marina for three or more years, told Ginger and I that we were going to die if we took off without our boat being 100% ready. I told them all that we would never ever be 100% ready. So we casted off our dock lines and hoisted our sails and off we sailed. That was almost 13 years ago.
This past Christmas we called one of those cruisers that were at the marina for three years when we arrived in 1996. That cruiser and his wife are friends of my wife and I. Theses friends swear this next year they will finally be ready to leave the dock and head south. They have now been getting ready to get ready for 15 years. The funny thing is that now their boat is old and they are concerned with that issue. In the time since we left the dock in San Diego we spent a glorious year cruising and arrived at our destination in Florida. Since then I built a company, made a couple million, bought two boats since (with all the toys) and I’m now building another company that someday will make me millions again.
They’re belief when I tell them what I have accomplished in the 13 years we’ve been gone was, “You got lucky.”
The moral of the story is that if you spend your life always getting ready to get ready, you will never achieve great success. I guarantee you can do research from here to eternity and you will never find a successful entrepreneur that was 100% ready to launch a business, when they launched their business.
With all this said, you always need to move forward, there will always be obstacles to cross, but if you don’t start you will never get a chance to cross those obstacles.
James A. Crumbaugh III is CEO of Allison James Estates & Homes.
For more information, visit www.allisonjamesinc.com or e-mail jcrumbaugh@allisonjamesestates.com.
