Why Action-Oriented Leaders Struggle Most with Doing Nothing

“A genius is the man who can do the average thing when everyone else around him is losing his mind.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

“There are three legal investment strategies: be smarter than others, be luckier than others, be more patient than others. That’s the whole list.” — Morgan Housel

“Don’t just do something, stand there.” — Jack Bogle

Extraordinary in Business, Ordinary in Investing

Entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals don’t get ahead by standing still. You’ve taken risks, made bold calls, and solved problems others couldn’t. That instinct for action has fueled your success.

But here’s the paradox: the same drive that built your career or business often works against you when it comes to investing.

We see it often:

• Entrepreneurs over concentrated in their own companies or drawn to private deals.
  
• Executives with stock options feeling pressure to act on industry optimism (or pessimism). 
  
• Professionals convinced they need to tweak portfolios constantly to stay ahead.
  

In reality, the genius of investing is often hidden in restraint. Success doesn’t usually come from brilliance or hustle, but more so from equanimity: staying calm when markets crash, resisting trend-following, and shrugging off FOMO.

At MKD Wealth, we believe that preserving and growing wealth isn’t about doing more; it’s about knowing when to pause, when to hold steady, and when to trust a plan that’s already strong.

Market Timing — Fear and Greed at Work

The “average move” in investing is simple: tune out the noise, ignore the talking heads, and stick with a portfolio aligned to your goals.

Warren Buffett said it best: “The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”

Why timing seldom works:

• You’re up against pros. Some industry-commentary suggests that institutional investors may account for roughly 70-90% of trading volume on major U.S. exchanges in recent years. If you’re selling, they’re likely buying, and they probably know something you don’t.
  
• It’s a two-step gamble. Selling requires you to also know when to buy back in. Making two perfect calls is far harder than simply staying invested.
  
• Investors underperform their own investments. Morningstar’s 2024 Mind the Gap study shows that investors’ timing decisions eroded returns. The average dollar invested in U.S. funds earned an estimated 6.3% annualized over 10 years—approximately 1.1% less than the average fund return—because of poorly timed trades.
  

For entrepreneurs and professionals, the impulse to act is strong. In business, pivoting fast can save you. In investing, pivoting fast usually costs you.

Stock Selection — Why Concentrated Bets Rarely Pay Off

The other temptation? Believing you can out pick the market.

Entrepreneurs often double down on familiar industries or their own companies. Executives lean on their conceptions of their industry’s value. Professionals swap stock tips with colleagues. But history tells a different story.

A landmark 2018 study, Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?, showed that from 1926–2016, only 42.6% of stocks outperformed one-month Treasuries over their lifetimes, and the most common outcome was a complete loss of capital.

Why picking winners is tough:

• Intense competition. Like timing, you’re competing with institutions. Your edge is small.
• Skewed odds. Most stocks underperform, with a few big winners driving the market. The odds of picking those winners consistently are slim.
  

Diversification may feel boring compared to the thrill of finding “the next big thing.” But boring can work. And boring can preserve wealth.

Cultivating the “Average” Mindset

Humans have an “action bias”—a tendency to act even when inaction may be wiser. For high-achievers, that bias is typically magnified.

Yet in investing, the discipline to stay the course is often the most valuable trait.

Key traits to develop:

• Patience: Allow compounding to do its work over decades.
  
• Diversification: Avoid concentrated guesses: spread risk across asset classes.
  
• Historical perspective: Ground decisions in financial theory, market history and empirical evidence, not today’s headlines.
  
• Emotional discipline: Resist tweaking your plan with every swing in the market.
  

For entrepreneurs, this means shifting from builder to steward. For executives, it’s learning to value stability over speed. For professionals, it’s embracing that wealth is preserved through consistency, not constant adjustment.

Remember: temperament during bad times destroys more wealth than the smartest portfolio design ever could.

Doing “Nothing” Is the Hardest Work

For action-oriented leaders, inactivity feels unnatural. But in investing, inactivity—when grounded in a solid plan—isn’t doing nothing. It’s a conscious decision to protect what you’ve built.

At MKD Wealth, our Family Office for Entrepreneurs and Private Wealth Management for Professionals and Executives exist to give you clarity, so you can trust the plan, step back from the noise, and experience freedom in your personal life, family finances, and business.

Doing the “average” thing in investing isn’t ordinary at all. It’s the discipline that separates those who preserve wealth from those who quietly erode it.

Schedule Your Freedom Gap Review

If you’re wondering whether your investment strategy truly supports your vision, or if your instincts to act are helping or hurting, you’re not alone. Our Freedom Gap Review helps you see where complexity, overconfidence, or timing decisions might be costing you clarity, confidence, and control.

Schedule your Freedom Gap Review and learn how to align your investing to close the gap that keeps you from experiencing true freedom. 

Sources:

• Market Timing: https://www.schwab.com/learn/story/does-market-timing-work
• Trading Volume of Instl Investors: https://eqvista.medium.com/how-is-the-demand-from-institutional-investors-compared-to-that-from-individual-investors-e58f30cb25d1
• https://www.thestreet.com/dictionary/institutional-investors
• Skewness in Stock Returns: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304405X18301521
• Morningstar “Mind the Gap” 2024.