Secrets to Success (4/10): Getting All the Facts is an Illusion
“Bureaucracy is a construction designed to maximize the distance between a decision-maker and the risks of the decision.”
— The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Incerto Book 4) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Investor’s Business Daily’s 10 Secrets to Success
- Take Action: Goals are nothing without action. Don’t be afraid to get started. Just do it.
- Never Stop Learning: Go back to school, read books, get training and acquire new skills.
- Be Persistent and Work Hard: Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up.
- Learn to analyze details: Get all the facts, all the input; learn from your mistakes.
The Way I See It:
Learn to analyze the details enough to make a good guess about what to do next.
- Getting all the facts is an illusion because today’s facts will be tomorrow’s embarrassment.
- The first regularly-scheduled steam-powered rail passenger service in the U.S. began operations on Christmas Day in 1830. The locomotive was called “The Best Friend of Charleston” and took travelers from from Charleston, SC to Hamburg, SC.
- Here were the “facts” before the train departed. Experts were sure that passengers would be in danger of nose bleeds because the train would be traveling as fast as 15 miles per hour. Later, when railroads started going through tunnels there was concern that people would suffocate.
- Action item: Don’t let a lack of knowledge keep you from moving forward. The question must never be: Do I have enough information to achieve this? The question should be: Should it be attempted?
All input is not equal. Surround yourself with people who have skin in the game.
- Personal axiom: There is some truth in all criticism.
- Learn from your critic, but count on your co-workers.
- Life is a journey not a democracy. Don’t spend your life trying to get enough votes, look for people who will share the journey with you.
And finally, learn from you mistakes quickly.
- I can get behind learning from your mistakes 100%. But do it quickly. The goal is learn how to do better next time, not build a lasting monument to your failures.
The ONE THING for today: Getting all the facts is an illusion. Analyze as much as is necessary to make the next step in the right direction and then make adjustments as needed.
Photo by S. Tsuchiya on Unsplash
