Sir Francis Bacon said, “Knowledge is power.” I agree that acquiring new information can help us sift through the many choices in life and make wise decisions. I also happen to think that the quest for knowledge can also be a big stumbling block to success.

If you’ve ever thought that you need more experience, more training, more certificates, or more education before you can go after your dream, you may have fallen into a common trap.

Most likely you have enough knowledge to begin moving forward on whatever the project or dream. Sure, you may need to act like a detective to get more clues to your next steps, but you don’t need to make it all such a big hairy deal.

Back in 1996, I took my first coaches training course. I immediately opened my coaching practice and built it while going through my certification process. In fact, the school’s criteria for being certified was to have several paying clients.

They want you to practice your skills while learning.

Your knowledge deepens as you take action and implement what you already know. I think that listening to webinars, reading books, and taking trainings are good eye openers, but they don’t actually give you knowledge. You have to use the information and see what results you get and then adjust based on results. This is where knowledge is gained.

I can think I’m educating a client on how to grow their business by giving them information, but it’s not until I engage that client in their own process that the education process begins. When you go within yourself and discover which beliefs, actions, and habits serve you well (and which don’t) you’ll have moved up the learning curve.

Steve Droke said, “Knowledge is power and enthusiasm pulls the switch.” This quote is right on the money when it comes to building a business. I was running on pure passion and very little knowledge when I built my business. And it worked quite well.

Later I gained more knowledge about marketing and money mindset and was able to grow it even more. But I had to be excited about the knowledge. If you learn new information that overwhelms you, you won’t do anything with it.

A little knowledge goes a long way when backed by inspired actions. Get moving now… and adjust as you go. Mistakes are inevitable, so don’t spend so much head space and time trying to protect yourself from them.

Have fun in your experimental phase. And isn’t it all an experiment anyway?