How often do you find yourself day-dreaming about something you wish you did, could have done, or hope to achieve, someday? Then someday never comes and that day-dream becomes just another, could have, should have distant memory. Our next guest article comes from author, Steve Garguilo with an excerpt from his newly released book, Surge which focuses on helping you, surge forward. Let’s surge forward together and make, “someday” into today.
Written by: Steve Garguilo, author of Surge.
The Fargo-Moorhead community regularly inspires me with how action-oriented you are! It was an honor to join you for the One Million Thanks event a few weeks ago and start off 2017 as the year of action. I want to share an excerpt from my new book, Surge, which features the science of and stories of action:
In 2011, Steve Gadlin—the self-proclaimed “serial silly project guy” and creator of iwanttodrawacatforyou.com (a company that sells stick figure cat drawings for $9.95)—started watching what at the time was a relatively new television show called Shark Tank. After seeing how successful other creative people had been on the show, he decided to give it a go. Instead of getting bogged down by the details of an elaborate plan to get noticed, Gadlin acted: he sent the producers an e-mail that read, “Hey guys, I draw stick-figure cats—lemme at ’em.” They did, and after a successful appearance on the show resulted in a $25,000 investment from Mark Cuban, Gadlin grossed $300,000 on stick figure cat drawings over the next few years.
He took a small action step (one that surely took him less than five minutes to complete) on an idea that most of us wouldn’t have even considered—it’s so silly—and he turned a profit by doing so. He didn’t get stuck in overthinking or overanalyzing, trying to decide if his idea was a good one or not. He threw it out there, and it stuck. He took action. He took steps to make progress and those steps developed into momentum that led him to unimaginable results. He Surged ahead.
On the other hand, think of how many times you’ve heard someone respond to a great idea that someone else took action on with something like, “Oh, I thought of that first” or “That should have been me!” Think about how many times you may have said something similar yourself. Those don’t make for great stories. No, those make for great regrets. No action. No results.
To us, an action is any movement, activity, or progress—regardless of its direction. Action means doing something, starting something, or accomplishing something. Sometimes that action may not lead you to where you want to go, and that’s okay. It’s still learning. Taking action—no matter the results—is an accomplishment, because you earn the knowledge of what to do next. You’ve also put into motion some form of change. You’ve taken control of a situation or a task, and you’ve tried to move it in a certain direction. In other words, you’re actively participating in your own life as opposed to passively watching life happen to you. Those are two very different things. As an author and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
It’s time to take action.
My co-authors and I have been on a two-decade quest to find better ways to take action on ideas—and share those strategies with others. In our new book, Surge, you’ll learn exactly how to harness the power of now to take action on your ideas. You’ll learn how to alleviate anxiety, face your fears, and overcome overwhelm—all so you can bring your ideas to life.
You can snag yourself a Kindle version copy for 99 cents from February 6-8 on Amazon.
For more information, check out actionsurge.com
