“Shut up and shoot. Stop pussyfooting.”
We sometimes spend too much time and energy researching and lining up our shots. This isn’t to say research and proper due diligence isn’t important, on the contrary, it can be paramount to avoid catastrophe. I’m saying we spend all our time analyzing, thinking, tinkering, research, sleeping on it, etc., etc. blah, blah, blah and we never act. It’s exhausting. And it’s from fear of failure.
You’re gonna mess up. You’re gonna fail. Sometimes in the most epic ways. But the important thing is to shoot the shot. Imagine if Michael Jordan spent all his time analyzing the perfect angle to shoot a jump shot. Perfecting the way he jumped. Mastering the art of his fadeaway. But he never actually shot the ball…he wouldn’t be Michael Jordan.
Stop worrying so much about the 1% that can go wrong. There is never a way to mitigate 100% of the risk. You’ll never have all the information. You have to learn how to act with 70% or hell sometimes 60% of the information. The best leaders learn how to trust their gut and have the confidence to see their actions through.
After a certain point, the best mentor is experience. And the only way to get that is to shut up and shoot the shot.