Pick any two - Quick, Cheap, or Good.

 

Of course none of these are quite dispensable qualities when it comes to making decisions having far reachhing consequenses. The common wisdom here is that trading off quality ('Good') is never a good idea, but it is acceptable to trade off the other two variables.

 

But like radix sort, we can do better under certain specialized conditions? What if the cost of making a mistake is not too much? Or perhaps an erroneous decision can be quickly identified and changed before the negative impact is too much? Should you then still be a stickler for high quality and spend time and money attempting to identify the most optimum solution to a problem? I believe not. Just make the call quickly enough and let it play out. You can always change your mind if you realize that your decision wasn't the best one. You'll save yourself money and time this way. And if you are lucky, your 'gut' decision would be the right one after all.

 

Of course, you have to be smart to pull this off. A leader with no track record for good judgment can't risk making mistakes. And inept leader can't do that either. Neither can someone who doesn't already command the respect of his peers enough that deliberate risks like these would blow in their face and be perceived as lack of ability. And of course, if you are the good leader all your peers think you are, you wouldn't think twice before calling your decision a bad one and changing it.

 

Failures are both the greatest impetus, and the single most important impediment, to success.

 

Passion towards a goal will make you want to overcome all that causes you to fail. The desire to succeed, when it is overwhelming, will not allow you to tolerate failures. Thus in a highly motivated person, failure can be even more motivating.

 

 

The other aspect of failure is the fear of it, or rather the fear of yet-to-be failures. Many things worth having are almost never easy to get, and fraught with perils. And many a time, we just don't take a chance because we'd rather not fall flat on our face.

 

How often do we pass on a great opportunity to interview for a dream job (I'll probably not get it and I'd feel worthless), or avoid starting on that weight loss diet (It probably won't work, I'll look vain, I wont' succeed and I'd feel bad that I can't be disciplined enough), ask someone out on a date (She'll reject me/say no, thus proving that I'm an idiot savant), or have the courage to pitch that new idea to your managers (it will fail, and my career would be toast) ?

 

This happens every day in our lives, that we come across opportunities and we let go of them, because we are too afraid to take the bull by its horn and deal with the changes that it will inflict upon our lives.

 

Added to the fear of failure is the fear of the unknown. We can't always predict the outcome, so we fear the lack of control and refuse to put ourseleves adrift into random waters. What we generally fail to realize it is always possible to know the worst-case outcome. The worst-case scenario might be totally unrealistic, and may never come to pass. But if you can be emotionally prepared to accept that worst-case outcome, you'd already have overcome all fears of failure!

 

 

When I was interviewing for jobs, I was in quite a desparate situation. I needed some job, and needed it quickly. My savings were nil, I was deep down in debt from student loans and an almost maxed-out credit card and had a part time job that was boring and for which I was way overqualified (not to mention, it paid me a pittance, but it was good experience and I had nice coworkers). So I got this interview with a great company and it almost felt like if I didn't get that job, I'd rather be drowning somewhere. To me, the worst case was that I'd probably not have a job, friends or family would potentially look down upon me as a failure (until I proved myself otherwise), I'd have to ask my family for support and would generally be in a limbo. I didn't have a plan, but I'd figured out that I atleast had a part time gig, and if I cut down on expenses etc and moved from my halfway decent apartment to a rathole, I could maybe save a bit more and eventually make even on the debt front and so on. So it would be bad, but I would survive. I knew that I would eventually find a good job because if I trusted something, it was my own ability to learn to adapt to the world. I just suspected that I was a bit slow...

 

Now this whole thinking and acceptance-of-the-worst-case thing didn't come easy. I spent several months mulling over it, and I only did it because failure was seeming more and more inevitable, so I figured I might as well rationalize it to myself and keep my sanity. But lo, it worked wonders. I go to the job interview, and for some reason I find myself not particularly wanting to suck-up to the interviewrs, nor any urge to get the job at all costs. So I start interviewing the interviewers, making mistakes and doing my own thing. Sure, I was smart, I answered questions right (mostly) and showed plenty of good qualities, but I always thought that it only worked out right because I wasn't a desparate man, or at least, the desperation never showed.

 

 

I've since tried the technique in a couple of other, less drastic, situations. It works every time, at least for me. I think the key is to be capable of success, but you have to let go of that nervousness that keeps you from being the best you can, and have an attitude of equanimity. If you can get into that zone, you'll be surprised at how well you can accomplish whatever it is that you set out to accomplish. And one trick to reaching that zone of nirvana is to trick your mind into believing that you are capable of dealing with the worst that life can throw you way.

 

 

Is this even a valid sentence - the title (The end of a parenthesis ;)?