Suppose you have five birds sitting on a wire and three of them decide to fly. How many birds would you have left on the wire?

Five birds remain. Making a decision to fly without acting on the decision gets you nowhere. Thinking about something won’t make it happen. Hoping won’t make something happen either. You must do something about it.

Opportunities do not come to those who wait. They are captured by those who act.

When Nolan Bushell was asked about his success in founding Atari, he said: “The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It’s as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week, but today.”

Don’t be like the husband lounging on the couch, who says to his wife: “I’ll think about weeding the garden in a little while. Right now, I’m thinking about painting the windows.”

All good things come to the person who goes after them. “I must do something” will always solve more problems than “Something must be done.”

Wayne Gretzky, the leading goal scorer in National Hockey League history, said, “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

Likewise, people miss 100% of any goal they set for themselves, idea they have or project they want to accomplish if they don’t take a shot at it. A lot of people have great ideas, but nothing in the world is worth less than a good idea with no action.

You have a better chance of getting your desired result if you take charge, rather than waiting for something to happen to you.

We could learn a lot about action by observing insects. Consider the bee. It will make visits to 125 clover heads to produce one gram of sugar. That comes to 3.4 million trips for bees to make only one pound of honey. Ants are admirable creatures as well. They're not concerned about their stature, but go about the diligent, tireless work of storing up food for their colony.

One of the best lines on the silver screen about the importance of action came from Yoda, the Jedi Knight trainer in the “The Empire Strikes Back.” While teaching Luke Skywalker about the power of the Force, Yoda says, “Do or do not. There is no try.”

Kevin Plank, while playing football at the University of Maryland, was frustrated by his sweat-soaked cotton T-shirts, so he designed shirts that would wick away his sweat. He convinced his former teammates who were then playing professionally to try his product, and word spread. Today Under Armour’s sales are more than $5 billion.

Sara Blakely was selling fax machines door-to-door when she was promoted to national sales trainer. She was forced to wear pantyhose in the hot Florida weather, which she couldn’t stand, so she experimented with more comfortable undergarments. Her Spanx sales are estimated at nearly $400 million annually.

I interviewed Tom Stemberg for my book “We Got Fired! ... And It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us.” He was fired from a supermarket chain and was working on his Apple IIc computer when the ImageWriter ribbon ran out on a July 4 weekend. He went from store to store and couldn’t find one. That’s when he realized that there was a shortage of office supply stores, and that inspired him to launch Staples.

An anonymous verse maker once made this insightful observation, titled “Mr. Meant-To.”

Mr. Meant-to has a comrade,

And his name is Didn’t do.

Have you ever chanced to meet him?

Did he ever call on you?

These two fellows live together

In the house of Never-win,

And I’m told that it is haunted

By the ghost of Might-have-been.

John Cleese, the English actor of Monty Python fame, is known for his expertise in business communications. He said: "If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it, you acknowledge the truth."

I agree wholeheartedly. I strongly believe having a sense of humor is an important attribute for success and happiness. Since April is National Humor Month, I've packaged up some of my favorite stories that illustrate important business principles.

The loaded minivan pulled into the only remaining campsite. Four youngsters leaped from the vehicle and began feverishly unloading gear and setting up a tent. Two kids then rushed off with their dad to gather firewood. Two others helped their mother set up the camp stove and cooking utensils. A nearby camper marveled to the father, "That is some impressive display of teamwork."

"Actually," the father replied, "I have a system. No one goes to the bathroom until camp is set up."

Without faith in yourself and others, success is impossible.

At the end of a particularly frustrating practice one day, a football coach dismissed his players, yelling, "Now, all you idiots, go take a shower!"

All but one player headed toward the locker room. The coach glared and asked why he was still there. "You told all the idiots to go, sir," the player replied, "and there sure seems to be a lot of them. But I am not an idiot."

Confident? You bet. And smart enough to coach that team someday.

Having spent my entire career in sales, I know how discouraging it is to hear "NO" over and over again. But a salesperson who thinks negatively couldn't sell life jackets on the Titanic.

It reminds me of the old grizzly veteran sales rep who runs into the new kid on the block.

"How are you getting along?" he asked the new sales rep.

"Not so good," came the disgusted reply. "I've been insulted in every place I made a call."

"That's funny," said the seasoned rep. "I've been on the road 40 years. I've had doors slammed in my face, my samples flung in the street, been tossed downstairs and manhandled by security. But insulted -- never!"

I received an interesting letter from one of my cronies that read: "I have to share with you my favorite story about my six-year-old grandson. He is in first grade, and we were discussing the reason he got in trouble at school.

"He said, 'I was disrespectful to my teacher.'

"I asked if it was wrong and he replied, 'Yes, I shouldn't have done it.'

"I said that we all make mistakes, and it's OK to make mistakes if we learn from them. People who learn from their mistakes are smart, and those who don't are stupid.

"Matthew thought for a while and then said, 'I've got to make a lot of mistakes, so I can get really smart.'"

Honesty is not only the best policy, it's the guiding principle that inspires trust.

A minister announced to the congregation that the topic for next week's sermon would be integrity. In preparation for the message, the congregation was asked to read the wisdom of Solomon, found in Proverbs 32.

The next Sunday the minister began by asking the congregation how many had read the assigned Scripture. Several hands went up.

"Just as I thought," said the minister. "There is no 32nd chapter in the book of Proverbs. Therefore, the need for this sermon on honesty."

Let me close with a whimsical story about Albert Einstein, who had a great sense of humor in addition to his superior intellect. His driver usually waited for his boss at the back of the lecture hall.

One day, the driver said to the famous scientist, "Boss, I've heard you give that speech so many times I could give it in my sleep."

At the next lecture stop, Einstein and the driver switched places, with Einstein sitting at the back, dressed in the driver's uniform. The driver delivered the lecture flawlessly. At the end of the lecture, a member of the audience asked a detailed scientific question about some of the subject matter. Without missing a beat, the "lecturer" replied, "Well, the answer to that question is so simple, I'm going to let my driver who is sitting in the back answer it."

Mackay's Moral: Humor isn't funny business -- it's fun business.

There is a great scene in “Alice in Wonderland” where Alice asks the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me please, which way I ought to go from here?”

The cat replies, “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

It’s important to know where you want to go; to have a purpose in life. Finding that purpose is among life’s biggest challenges. Discovering what is important to you, what you are passionate about and where you can make a difference -- those are the factors that drive your purpose.

No matter how much money you make or how famous you become, living without a purpose takes the joy out of life. When the most important part of your existence is missing, the quest for success becomes hollow.

People with a strong sense of purpose know what they want, why they want it and how they plan to achieve it. Purpose-driven people get in the habit of doing things they don’t like to do in order to accomplish the purpose they have defined for themselves.

Businessman and philanthropist W. Clement Stone said: “When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.”

Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons in his first speech as prime minister in 1940, made his purpose crystal clear: “You ask: ‘What is our aim?’ I can answer in one word: Victory! Victory at all costs, victory in spite of terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.”

Rosa Parks also had a purpose: to take a stand for personal dignity. She believed that having to give up her seat on the bus because of her skin color was not right. She took a stand for human rights and put equality for all people in a new perspective.

Vietnam veteran Jan Scruggs had a vision and commitment to recognizing soldiers who died in that war. Today the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, engraved with the names of more than 58,000 Americans who lost their lives in that conflict, is the most visited monument in Washington, D.C.

Candy Lightner’s life changed on May 3, 1980, when her daughter was killed by a drunk driver. Less than a week later, the grieving mother met with friends to discuss what they could do to make an impact on drunk-driving fatalities, and thus Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was born. Today there are more than 360 chapters of MADD throughout the world, and hundreds of new laws have passed addressing drunk driving.

In February 1980, the U.S. Men’s Olympic hockey team did the seemingly impossible by upsetting the heavily favored Soviet team and then beating Finland to capture the gold medal in Lake Placid, New York, to shouts of “U.S.A.!” Before his team's victory over the Soviet Union, the coach of the U.S. hockey team, my friend Herb Brooks, told his players, “You are born to be a player. You are meant to be here at this time. This is your moment.”

James Montgomery Boice, in his book “Learning to Lead,” tells a story about Yogi Berra, the famous catcher for the New York Yankees, and Hank Aaron, who at that time was playing for the Milwaukee Braves. The teams were playing in the World Series, and the famously talkative Yogi chattered nonstop, intending to pep up his teammates and rattle the Milwaukee batters. As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi, trying to distract him, said, “Henry, you're holding the bat wrong. You're supposed to hold it so you can read the trademark.”

Aaron responded by smacking the next pitch into the left-field bleachers. After rounding the bases and touching home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi and said, “I didn't come up here to read.”

Mackay’s Moral: A person without a purpose is like a plane without wings.

(Harvey Mackay is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive." He can be reached through his website, www.harveymackay.com, by emailing harvey@mackay.com or by writing him at MackayMitchell Envelope Co., 2100 Elm St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.)