An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Lifestyle Freedom: Episode 27

To be quite frank, nothing frustrates me more than a leader who cannot make a decision to act. With that being said, the fifth Unemployed Millionaire Leadership Law is: Be a strong decision maker.

Theodore Roosevelt once said: “In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.”

Managers are  often concerned with doing things right.  Too many managers focus on analyzing every decision to the nth degree and continually miss opportunities because they were simply too slow to act….

Leaders are more concerned with doing the right thing. Not all of your decisions will be correct. In fact, many times you may make the wrong decisions more often than you would like.

But as long as you are making decisions and making them for the right reasons, you will learn to make right decisions more often than not. I can promise you this – your decisions will get better as you gain experience in making decisions.

The most famous example of someone who failed often on their way to success is Thomas Edison. When Thomas Edison was only 7 years old, he attended school for three months before his teacher labeled him a slow learner. His mother promptly pulled him out of school and taught him at home, where he quickly developed an interest in science.

While working as a telegraph operator for Western Union near Wall Street, Edison repaired the Gold Exchanges new telegraphic gold-price indicator after it broke down. After studying how the crude stock ticker worked, he set about inventing a better one, which earned him $40,000 for his invention, known as the Edison Universal Stock Printer.

At the age of 20, Edison set up his famous laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey to begin work full-time as an inventor. In one year alone, he earned over 400 patents for his various inventions, which caused the local citizens to nickname him “The Wizard of Menlo Park.”

His greatest triumph came about in 1878 when he announced to the world that he would invent an inexpensive electric light to replace the gas light. This announcement was ridiculed…

Edison continued to experiment with over 10,000 different materials until he finally invented the first incandescent light-bulb on October 21, 1879. Like most legendary successes, Thomas Edison knew that the road to success is paved with failure.

The key to decision making as a leader is to strive for excellence rather than perfection. What is the greatest lesson you have learned through experiences with decision making?

Share your answer in the comments section below!

For more information on Leadership Law 5, check out pages 90-91 of The Unemployed Millionaire.

P.S. Did you miss Leadership Law 4? Find out what it is right here: The Unemployed Millionaire Show: Episode 26.