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The best entrepreneurs don't necessarily have the best ideas - but they are great at figuring out quick, easy, and cheap ways to validate them.

For instance, when Reed and I heard about DVDs and realized they might be the key to getting our Video Rental by Mail idea to work, we didn't rush to the office to start working on a business plan, nor did we head home to work on a pitch deck.

We were mid-commute and just turned the car around and went into town, bought a used music CD, bought a greeting card envelope, put the CD in the envelope and mailed it to Reed's house. The idea that started Netflix was tested in less than 24 hours and cost us less than $2.00.

This is why I tell budding entrepreneurs that their most defining trait should be their predisposition to action. They should think less and do more. That’s what separates successful entrepreneurs from the rest.

The rest are people who are so in love with their ideas that they spend all their time thinking about it, and start building castles in their mind. And since it's all happening in an alternate reality (in their head) there are no constraints.

Everything works. They elaborate. They add a new wing to the castle. They put in a pool. And pretty soon their simple idea has turrets, flying buttresses, a drawbridge and gargoyles. It's now complicated and expensive and that's when the excuses begin: I need to raise money. I need to hire people. I need an MBA.

Excuses, all of them.

You need to find a cheap, quick and simple way to test your idea. That’s the only way to know whether or not your idea is good or bad. Whether or not it is viable. Whether or not it will ever really work.