It’s the best you can do, right? No.
The answer to “Is that the best you can do” is always “no”.
It’s the best I can do is a great excuse and is much more palatable than “I failed to do whatever it took.”
Sam Hazledine, author Unfair Fight
What are ‘blink’ decisions costing you?
What are ‘blink’ decisions costing you? Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, popularised the idea that people’s first judgement, their gut instinct, is the usually the best one.
He says that people are able to assimilate complex information almost instantly and draw meaningful conclusions.
Blink is a fascinating read, but, as Gladwell would put it, let’s examine the idea that we come up with our best judgements in the blink of an eye.
Yes we are able to make snap judgements about people and social situations, we have to, evolution has dictated that we need to be able to instantly assess whether a situation is safe or not.
But there is a good deal of research that demonstrates that most people are poor at making many types of judgements. At the top of that list are judgements about the likelihood of events, one’s own competence relative to others’, and about cause-and-effect relationships.
So if you’re looking to run your business on ‘blink’ decisions then expect to fall into the common traps that lead to costly mistakes.
Although the attraction of this approach is you don’t have to subject yourself to any real thinking and you can continue substituting popular slogans for insights.
Or if you are prepared to give up the excuse that gut instinct is the best way to run your business and you’re prepared to do the mental heavy lifting that sound strategy requires, then you might have a chance at real success.
In the words of Rudyard Kipling: “If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs…”
Sam Hazledine, author Unfair Fight
I’m smaller, therefore I’m the underdog, right?
I’m smaller, therefore I’m the underdog, right? History remembers David as the underdog when he fought Goliath, the young boy standing up to the seasoned giant.
But the reality is quite different.
David was using artillery (a slingshot) to fight a lumbering, slow-moving, behemoth. Goliath couldn’t defend against the stone that was slung at him; Goliath couldn’t win and David couldn’t lose.
To win this battle David didn’t fight head-to-head; he thought and acted unconventionally and set up the playing field so success was inevitable.
In what areas of your life and business are you doing what everyone else does because that’s how it’s done?
96% of business ultimately fail, so my thoughts are that doing what everyone else does is probably a pretty bad idea.
Sam Hazledine, author Unfair Fight
0-100 in 2.2 seconds, or slow and steady?
0-100 in 2.2 seconds, or slow and steady? Super tankers work because they are slow, steady, and incredibly powerful. They can move huge amounts of load over great distances.
Formula One cars work because they are incredibly fast, they can turn on a dime, and they can get around a track really quickly.
Large organisations work because they have huge mass, they are massive forces with great inertia, they go where they are pointed. But they can’t stop quickly and they take a long time to turn, they are going in one direction and that’s that.
Even with engines in full reverse a super tanker will take over 9 kilometres (5.5 miles for our American friends).
On the other hand, it’s possible to make a massive impact by being quicker to turn, by being more nimble, by having the ability to pivot.
It’s important not to confuse what you are though. Trying to turn your small business into a super tanker might negate the advantage you have.
I’m yet to see a super tanker in pole position.
Sam Hazledine, author Unfair Fight
Overnight failure/success
Overnight failure/success Companies and brands are overnight successes, or overnight failures.
Essentially life happens gradually, then suddenly.
Gradually because it’s the small things done consistently, every day, that mean we either succeed or fail; opportunities are missed or taken, customers are looked after or ignored, staff are engaged or become disenchanted.
But we don’t always notice when things are going awry because we still have profit, and profit can disguise many sins.
But all of a sudden the profit runs out and the business falls over.
Of course it didn’t happen suddenly, you just suddenly noticed.
On the flip side success doesn’t happen overnight either; it’s the small things done consistently well, that might not seem to be paying off at the time, that lead to it.
Then all of a sudden profits pop and your company is an overnight success that took five years to develop.
This is how life works, but people focus on the ‘suddenly’ part, but that’s not how it happens.
Success is gradual, and gradual is critically important because it’s the only part you can do something about.
Sam Hazledine, author Unfair Fight