This Monday flew by in an instant. As you can probably tell, I’m late with this email - my mantra is that it doesn’t count as long as it’s still Monday somewhere in the world. And it’s only 5pm in NYC, so I win, Universe.
Regardless, RIP my open rate.
Without further ado, lateral think!
At the bottom of a hill, more than 40 cars are involved in an accident. Some of the cars are overturned and others are resting on top of other cars. The pile-up is so large that a few military vehicles and a fire truck are also involved in the crash.
What happened to cause such a big wreck?
One potential answer, as usual, at the end.
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Act in doubt, ponder when certain
To misquote Dune, since it’s on everyone’s lips again: “Doubt is the mind killer”.
The things is, it’s ok to have doubt.
I’ve only seen things fail miserably when people acted in complete certainty or did not act at all.
From experience, the majority of failures happen around two types of people:
Confident doers that rarely consider other’s opinions and push forward relentlessly convinced that their view is the correct one
9 out of 10 times, it isn’t. A few times, it is and extraordinary things happen. But that’s why they’re extraordinary.
Hesitant thinkers that will endlessly debate a topic or a way moving forward, without ever stepping on the gas
9 out of 10 times, inaction kills a project. A few times, overthinking things helps and leads to unexpected results.
Just because some people in each category have managed to stand out, that does not mean the approach works. Quite the opposite, it’s a clear example that the process is flawed.
When in doubt, act. It’s often better to act on a flawed strategy than to not act at all. Action will force you to correct your heading and even if you’re not getting to your destination in the shortest time possible, you are making headway.
When overconfident, stop. If you’re certain you have the absolute perfect recipe for success, you most likely don’t have all the information or don’t realize the complexity of the situation. You’ll notice that experts often say “well, it depends”, whereas people fairly new to a subject will immediately act like the hold the absolute Truth.
Few things are certain (yes, death and taxes). It’s naive to think otherwise.
Answer: a child was playing with his toy trucks and cars.