I have heard this said many times, especially about the giving of gifts. But does the thought really count more than the actual doing? Say I remember that it’s my mum’s birthday next week, I go out and buy her a random gift and give it to her on her birthday. Does this mean more than spending time trying to find out what she would really like and then going out of my way to get this? Certainly buying a present for my mum is better than doing nothing. But if she says, “It’s the thought that counts” is she really saying, “I don’t like the present but at least you remembered my birthday”?

Or what about that friend that you haven’t seen in a while and you think about visiting. For this to be of any benefit to you and your friend you need to arrange a time to see them and go do it. You need to make an effort.

Good ideas are like this. You can sit around all day dreaming, scheming and thinking up creative ideas. You can even put some token effort into making them happen. But thoughts by themselves are not enough – it’s the execution that matters. How many times have you said, “I thought of that years ago”?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 25th, 2002 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.