Are You Over Analyzing Things?

This is a guest post from Welly Mulia, a blogger who’s mission is to help people who are just starting their journey towards making money online.

There’s a saying that says “Too much analysis leads to action paralysis”. What do you think? Do you agree with that statement? A while back (about 2 years ago) I wrote a post on my blog talking about how this famous local businessman in my country thinks that “stupid” people succeed faster than “smart” people.

Stupid People VS. Smart People

The reasoning behind this is simple: Smart people are very knowledgeable and have a lot of information at their disposal. While this is good in many cases, ironically this is also the exact reason they tend to over analyze situations and problems and result in inactivity. Countless “what if” questions start popping out from their mind and eventually this leads to action paralysis.

Compare this with “stupid” people – people who are far less knowledgeable than “smart” people. Because these “stupid” people don’t over analyze (due to their limited knowledge), they are more likely to just do it and “take risks”, so to speak. They don’t really mind failing – if they fail; they stand up and try again using other methods.

Better To Do Something

It’s better to do SOMETHING (even though you might fail) than not to do anything at all (action paralysis). If you do something, you might fail or you might succeed (50% chance). If you don’t do anything (because you are afraid of failing), you won’t get anything (0% chance).

No action = no results.

Even if you tried something and it does not work out, use reframing techniques to reinforce your mind that you have NOT failed. What you did is you discovered a way that did not work, which ultimately brings you one step closer to your success. You only need to find ONE method that works which will lead to your success.

When we are born into this world, we can’t walk. So we try to crawl first. And when we are just starting to learn to walk, we stand up only to fall again. Does that mean that we have failed? And that we should give up trying to walk altogether?

Of course not! If we were to do that, we’d never be able to walk, EVER!

The Method That Didn’t Work

Each time we fall, we discover one method that didn’t work. So the next time we try a DIFFERENT method to find ONE that works.

I see A LOT of people saying they want to do online business but they don’t do anything, or they did something but because it didn’t work out for them so they gave up.

Perfection?

Some 2 years ago, I read a forum post where this guy said that he has been spending 1.5 years creating his “perfect” info product but it’s still not completed yet. He wants his product to be perfect before launching it to the market.

This guy is SERIOUSLY over-analyzing too much. There is no product out there that is perfect. It’s much better to just do a good job (no need for perfection because it can’t be attained anyway) and then release the product, then over time gathers user feedback and improve along the way, than to try creating the perfect product.

I bet as of today, this guy’s product is still not complete yet…

Don’t be like him. Stop over-analyzing and over-complicating things and just do what need to be done in your business (of course you still need to do some planning, but not too much). Accept the fact that you can’t be perfect and mistakes are bound to be committed. Learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them again, and you’ll become better as you gain more experience.

Business is built one SMALL step at a time; just like the saying “Rome was not built in one day”.

NOTE: Welly Mulia also provides an interesting no cost Cheat Sheet which introduces you to the the world of making money on the internet.

DiTesco

DiTesco is a Business and Inbound Marketing Consultant, and founder of iBlogzone.com. iBlogzone's main objective is to help startups and small business owners achieve success in their online ventures. | More About Me and my Digital Marketing Services in SP Brazil.

13 thoughts on “Are You Over Analyzing Things?

  • RT @ditesco: New Post: Are You Over Analyzing Things? – This is a guest post from Welly Mulia, a blogger who’s mission is t… http://ow.ly/18kQGq

  • I totally agree that some people tend to over analyze, especially smarter people but the really smart ones are the ones who don’t do it for very long, they take action – even if it turns out to be the wrong action there are things to be learned by it. Very good guest post, thank you!

    • Glad you like it. Most people don’t succeed in this business because they take too much time thinking and not enough time doing. If only that could be reversed! 🙂

      • Hi Welly. Thanks for sharing your thoughts about the subject matter to us. Since day one, this has been my “message” to everyone who wants to succeed in any online endeavor. Action, action and action. Knowledge is great but is absolutely useless if not acted upon. I am convinced that this is where many people outrank those who don’t. Great post and a good reminder 😉

    • Hi Dick. good to see you here. I will add to Welly’s message that it is not only the “smart” or the whatever you want to label people who just sit and procrastinate. It is people who says that they will, but in reality they don’t. Not taking action is obviously not being smart and so the question remains, how would you know if something works for you if you don’t even try it first? Taking action is one of the key factors to success, no more no less..

  • I love your article Welly! I guess from what ready, I’ll have to be a bit more stupid now =)
    Seriously though, so true what you say. When I first began my online ventures, I was totally over-analyzing everything. Because of this it took me over 4 months to get my first online business up and running!
    The funny thing is this, it’s still not perfect. 😉
    Things have come a long way since than thank goodness, but it was a lesson learned.
    Thanks for sharing!

    • Hi Michele. 4 months is not a whole lot specially if you did get “your act” together 🙂 Worst would have been all that time and still nothing. While Welly is absolutely right about “over analyzing” everything, I believe that the strong message here is “to take action” rather than procrastinating decisions for a brighter day.

      • Hi Michele,

        Glad that you liked the article. Just like what Francisco said, 4 months to get your business up and running is actually not bad at all. Way to go!

        And yes the message here is to take action and learn from your mistakes. Business is built upon small incremental improvements!

  • This is a very honest post. I agree with it completely. Let me put it in simpler words…Go ahead with whatever you want to do. And you shouldn’t just limit it to the blogging. Ofcourse, you need to have a basic understanding of the same but yes, do not spend too much time in thinking. Act soon and look for the results. Do not feel demotivated if it doesn’t work in the beginning. It will…keep learning from your mistakes and move ahead 🙂

  • Greetings. I am not of the branch, however the message about “action” is valid for several business. Very well-thought-out the text.

  • I think that guy might be on to something who suggested smart people vs. stupid people. I have seen this in a traditional business setting many times. There are a lot of successful people out there that you would not think of as being the smartest guys in the group. You have to give them credit because they built their businesses, but otherwise forget it. These people do share something in common though. They take action. They get things done for better of for worse. If they are for worse then they get something done immediately to correct it. That is simply brilliant.

    • Hi Kathy and welcome. Welly did start this article somewhat intriguing but the real message was exactly what you said, taking action. I think that this is where people makes a difference and indeed, better to find out early that the worst did not work and find the time to rectify it, than doing nothing at all. The thing is, what if it works? That would be something and there is really one way to find out.

Comments are closed.