When in doubt…

Often when something goes wrong people say “I knew it! I had a bad feeling and I should’ve listened to my gut.”

We say this when we hire an employee and it doesn’t work out (I had doubts from the beginning) or when we take on a project and it fails (I was never comfortable with the idea).

You’ll receive advice from investors and other entrepreneurs to always follow your instinct/heart/gut/[insert any other body part]. While I don’t necessarily think these saying are wrong, I do think it’s pretty useless advice.

As confident as you are, there are always insecurities. And if it turns out to be a bad decision, you’ll remember every single hesitation. When it all turns out great, you’ll conveniently forget you were ever reluctant.

I doubt every decision I make – every single time, and the whole day through. And I’m not uncomfortable with doing so. It’s a healthy part of making decisions – think things through and consider all negative outcomes. Only then can you live with every judgement call.

Instinct and gut feelings are very important factors in decision-making processes. But if I based all my decisions on being completely confident, I would never get started. Risk and acceptance is part of life.

This is my introduction text for last weeks issue of our TNW Weekly update:You can read the whole newsletter here, or sign up to receive your own copy.