Recently, I was interviewing Paul Hartunian, the master of free publicity, who successfully juggles several very different careers. Paul commented:
People don’t act because a lot of things are in front of them.
I’ve gone to lots of seminars where there was so much information you were on information overload. The vast majority of people then froze; they wound up doing nothing.
All this information and all these experts were right there, willing to help the seminar participants do what they want to do, accomplish what they want to accomplish.
They may have been given lots of great products to sell; they were given SO MANY options in that one day that they froze.
Paul’s point was that when we’re confronted by too many possibilities, we can freeze up.
Trying to decide which of 15 or 20 options to pursue can be frustrating, especially if all of them appear to be good choices.
My granddaddy used to say, “A dog that chases two rabbits won’t catch either one.” He’d pause for a second, then add, “And he’ll go hungry tonight.” He was trying to get me to realize how...