This week’s question from our portal “Ask Us Anything” comes from Chris:
You did a teaching about getting into over-analysis, and I’m realizing that’s my new stopping strategy. I’ve moved past “I don’t feel like it” and my task lists are getting done. But now it’s mitigating risk—something happens and I get consumed with how to avoid or mitigate it next time. Where is it smart to do that cost-benefit analysis, and where does it start to become too much where I’m not moving forward?
You do it everywhere in business—but you move forward at the same time. Everything we do, we’re looking at what worked, what didn’t, what the stats say, what we really want to do, what it’s going to cost. But it never stops us from moving forward at the same time.
You’re looking for absolute answers, and they don’t exist. Sometimes you move a date, sometimes you commit to something and go “oh shit, that’s not enough time.” You’re not going to get it perfect. The rule of thumb is just take action and adjust as you go. That’s really what it is for all success—staying on that edge of uncertainty and making adjustments as you go. Sometimes they cost you. That’s just a fact. You try to make it so it doesn’t, but if it does, you don’t sweat it. You just keep moving forward.
90% of the time you listen to the data. But if you know 100% in your heart, and the data’s showing you something different, follow your heart, because you can change the data. Somebody had to believe in it to take it past the initial data that says “this isn’t working”—otherwise there’d be no business anywhere.
There’s a lot of self-honesty that has to happen. For me, if we do something that doesn’t work and I’m honest with myself, I’ll say my heart wasn’t in it. I was excited at the time, but my heart wasn’t in it. If you’re leading the front end to sell it or promote it, you’ve got to be all in 100%, because that’s what the vibration does—it attracts the right people.