At a university, a professor asked his students: “If there are four birds on a tree and three of them decided to fly away, how many are left on the tree?” Everyone answered, “One.” They were surprised when one student disagreed and said, “Four birds remain.” This caught everyone’s attention.
The professor asked him: “How so?”
He replied: “You said they decided to fly, but you didn’t say they actually flew. Making a decision doesn’t mean taking action.”
It’s a teaching story that circulates widely, and for good reason. Decision doesn’t equal action. A bias toward action is one of my personal fundamental values. I don’t want to leave the earth regretting what I “coulda, woulda and shoulda”. I tell my students I’d rather regret that I did something than regret that I didn’t.
The Small Business Reality
In small business, the gap between decision and action kills more dreams than bad ideas ever will. I’ve seen it several times over the years. The otherwise savvy entrepreneur who “decided” six months ago that their culture-poisoning sales manager Stuart should be fired, but repeatedly postpones the action. The pricing increase that’s been “decided” since Q1 but somehow the old rates keep getting quoted. The bad client everyone knows needs to go but keeps getting one more chance.
This matters more in small business than in corporate life. You don’t have bureaucracy to blame, or scale to absorb waste. Resources are tight, which means indecision is expensive. Every month you don’t raise prices means profits foregone forever. Speed is supposed to be your competitive advantage over bigger players. Don’t squander that advantage by overthinking.
I’m not condoning recklessness or impulsivity, but rather a clear-eyed recognition that in business the cost of indecision often exceeds the cost of a wrong decision. Most bets are small, so act that way.
Why We Get Stuck
The psychological barriers are real. Fear of irreversibility stops us cold. What if I regret firing Stuart, raising prices, or cutting that service? Perfectionism whispers that we should wait for the perfect moment, the perfect plan, or the perfect conditions. Decision fatigue compounds everything. When you’re making a hundred small decisions daily, the big ones get endlessly postponed.
But here’s the truth that nearly twenty years of teaching and consulting has taught me: Most business decisions are more reversible than we think. You can re-hire, adjust pricing, bring back a service. Coca-Cola’s introduction of New Coke in the 1980s is a great example. They replaced Classic Coke, met a massive backlash, and reversed the decision within months.
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What Action Actually Looks Like
So what does a bias toward action look like in practice? Here are real decisions small business owners face, and what action (not just deciding) actually means: The Personnel Problem DECIDED: “Stuart needs to go. He’s toxic, underperforming, or just the wrong fit.” ACTION: Start documentation today. Pull his file and review performance issues tonight. Review the employment agreement to understand your obligations. Book a meeting with your lawyer or HR consultant this week. Have the conversation next week. Not next quarter when it’s “less busy”. Stuart is costing you money and morale every single day. The Pricing Decision DECIDED: “We’re underpriced by 15%. Everyone tells us our quality is worth more.” ACTION: Email your next three prospects with the new rates today. Send existing clients written notice with a 90-day grandfather period this week. Update your website tonight. No more discounting because you’re nervous. The market will tell you if you’re wrong, and you can adjust. But you’ll never know if you don’t test it. If you’re wondering what the impact of the price increase might be, check out this post. Or, on a more personal note, you’ve DECIDED: “I need to lose these 30 lbs that crept up on me these last five years.” ACTION: Sign up for the gym again today. Start eating better with the very next meal, not next week. Restrict alcohol to the weekends starting right now, not “after tomorrow’s beer league game”. If your health matters, it matters now. Action has a today or a this week component. Specificity. Small, irreversible steps that create momentum. Once you’ve sent the email, cancelled the subscription, or booked the appointment, momentum can take over.The Action Bias Framework
To make this easier at first, time-box your decisions. Give yourself a deadline. “I’ll decide about hiring/firing/pricing by Friday at noon.” Then honour it. The decision doesn’t get better by aging like wine. Create a personal bias toward reversible actions. Most decisions can be undone or adjusted. The ones that truly can’t like selling the company, taking on a business partner, or signing a 10-year lease deserve considerable deliberation. But most others are completely reversible.The Entrepreneur’s Advantage
Speed of execution is the small business superpower. It’s your advantage over the corporate giants with their committees and approval processes. When you squander that advantage by acting like you need consensus from people who don’t exist, you’re giving away the only structural advantage you have. The birds that decide and fly are the ones that survive. The ones that just decide? They’re still sitting on the branch when winter comes, cold and getting hungry.If you liked this, you might like this related post about “satisficing” or how good enough is often perfect.
