A viable option

When you are under pressure, mistakes happen.

Luckily, not all mistakes will cost you $100 billion. And most importantly, you are the one deciding what pressure to bow to. Not everything is worth pursuing, not all chances are worth taking, not all competitors are worth following.

Sometimes the wise response is to slow down and let go. It’s always a viable option.

Enough data

A little data is always better than no data. Because no data is the realm of opinions, hearsay, gossips, and past experiences.

A lot of data is sometimes better than a little data. Because a lot of data can be confusing, irrelevant, misleading.

A good amount of data is difficult to strike. Because when you start getting data, you want more, and that’s when you end up with a lot of data and the problems from the paragraph above.

The point is that data is useful and should be used, as long as, at some point, you can say “enough!”.

No surprises

Winning and (not) losing is the focus for many.

But that doesn’t matter.

What truly matters is:

  1. Have you given it all you could?
  2. What could you do differently next time so that all you have to give is a bit more than this time?

Wins and losses are outcomes, you can’t control those.

Focus on the input instead.

No surprises there.

In praise of average

One of the things people misunderstand about average is that it is not necessarily stable over time.

Average can scale, it can get things done, it can make a difference in the long term.

It’s just a matter of consistency and perspective.

Just easier

Knowing yourself – what you stand for, what you want to achieve, how you like things done, what you want to avoid – is important mainly because it saves you from the frustration of not being able to have it all.

You can have control and you can have agility. You can’t have them both.

You can have family time and you can have a glorious career. You can’t have them both.

You can have independence and you can have stability. You can’t have them both.

When you know yourself, you know what matter, and letting go of things is just easier.

Note: of course, there are exceptions. Some people can have one and the other. But exceptions are rare, and betting on them is often conducive to further frustration.