Three Cs of Forward Action
Embrace change, borrow courage, and build confidence through action
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 99%
The sequence begins with change: accept that circumstances, technology, and business conditions will keep moving, and that refusing to adapt creates decline. Next comes courage, the willingness to take an uncomfortable action before confidence exists. Courage can be borrowed from a compelling personal reason or from evidence that you survived difficult moments before. Only after entering the game does the third C, confidence, begin to grow. Experience with both failure and success develops judgment, intuition, and drive. When a new level introduces another change, repeat the sequence rather than waiting for confidence to arrive in advance.
Origin
At the end of the interview, Graziosi offered the Three Cs in response to Sanchez's question about overcoming procrastination and doing the important thing today.
Core principles
- 01Change is the constant
- 02Courage precedes confidence
- 03Confidence grows only after entering the game
- 04Failure and success both produce useful experience
How to run it
- 1
Embrace change
Acknowledge the shift rather than hiding from it. Treat adaptation as necessary because change will continue whether or not you participate.
Pro tip Name the cost of staying still.
Watch out Burying your head in the sand allows the gap to widen.
- 2
Borrow courage
Use a personal why or a past experience to take the uncomfortable action without waiting to feel ready.
Pro tip Recall a previous storm you survived when present courage feels unavailable.
Watch out Confidence is not a prerequisite for the first move.
- 3
Enter the game
Act while uncertainty remains. Let real contact with the problem replace imagined difficulty.
Watch out Planning without participation cannot create confidence.
- 4
Build confidence
Learn from both failure and success until experience becomes intuition and drive. Repeat the cycle when the next level changes the problem.
Watch out Do not interpret an early failure as proof that courage was misplaced.
In the wild
Graziosi used AI as an example of unavoidable technological change. A business owner who decides not to use it risks falling behind, so the first requirement is to stop denying the shift and begin adapting before confidence in the new tools is complete.
→ Acceptance of the change creates the opening for courageous experimentation and eventual confidence.
Common mistakes
Waiting for confidence
Confidence is produced by playing the game, so demanding it before action traps the person in procrastination.
Resisting inevitable change
Denial consumes the time that could have been used to learn and adapt.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people facing an unavoidable shift, uncertain decision, or intimidating first action.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when hesitation reflects a material risk that still requires evidence or safeguards.
From the episode
The Man Who Makes Millionaires (for 30+ Years): His Money Framework I Dean Graziosi
Dean Graziosi