5 Simple Truths Smart Investors Forget

Some of the smartest investors I know continuously struggle to get ahead because they forget to address a few simple truths that collectively govern our potential to make progress. So here is a quick reminder:

No 1 – Education and intelligence accomplish nothing without action.
It does not matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Business Administration; you cannot change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action. There’s a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it.
Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action. It is as simple as that. For some practical guidance on taking action, I highly recommend The Now Habit. Your number one enemy as an investor is Procrastination.

No 2 – Happiness and success are two different things.
I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who made almost a million Naira online last year. Every entrepreneur I know considers her to be wildly successful. But guess what? A few days ago, out of the blue, she told me that she’s depressed. Why? “I am burnt out and lonely. I just have not taken enough time for myself lately,” she said. “Wow!” I thought. “One of the most successful people I know is not happy.”
“What will make me happy?” and “What will make me successful?” are two of the most important questions you can ask yourself. But they are two different questions.

No 3 – Everyone runs their own business.
No matter how you make a living or who you think you work for, you only work for one person, yourself. The big question is: What are you selling, and to whom? Even when you have a full-time, salaried, ‘Corporate Nigeria’ position, you are still running your own business.
You are selling one unit of your existence (an hour of your life) at a set price (the associated fraction of your salary) to a customer (your employer).
So how can you simultaneously save your time and increase your profit? The answer is slightly different for everyone. But it is an answer you should be seeking.

No 4 – Having too many choices interferes with decision making.
Here in the 21st century where information moves at the speed of light and opportunities for innovation seem endless, we have an abundant array of choices when it comes to designing our lives and careers. But sadly, an abundance of choice often leads to indecision, confusion and inaction.
Several business and marketing studies have shown that the more product choices a consumer is faced with, the fewer products they typically buy.
After all, narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices. If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up.

So if you are selling a product line, keep it simple. And if you are trying to make a decision about something in your life, do not waste all your time evaluating every last detail of every possible option. Choose something that you think will work and give it a shot. If it does not work out, choose something else and keep pressing forward.

No 5 – All people possess dimensions of success and dimensions of failure.
This point is somewhat related to point No 2 on happiness and success, but it stands strong on its own as well…
Trying to be perfect is a waste of time and energy. Perfection is an illusion.
All people, even our idols, are multidimensional. Powerful business men, polished musicians, bestselling authors, and even our own parents all have dimensions of success and dimensions of failure present in their lives
Our successful dimensions usually encompass the things we spend the most time doing. We are successful in these dimensions because of our prolonged commitment to them.
This is the part of our lives we want others to see – the successful part that holds our life’s work. It is the notion of putting our best foot forward. It is the public persona we envisage as our personal legacy: “The Successful ABC” or “The Award Winning XYZ.”

But behind whichever polished storyline we publicly promote, there lies a multi-dimensional human being with a long list of unprofessed failures. Sometimes this person is a bad husband or wife. Sometimes this person laughs at the expense of others. And sometimes this person merely takes their eyes off the road and rear-ends the car in front of them.