It took me fifteen years to learn a fundamental lesson that they don’t teach in business school:

Your success in business depends far more on your relationship with uncertainty than pretty much anything else.

Think about it for a second.

It doesn’t matter how great your startup idea is if you won’t try because you’re uncomfortable taking risks.

It doesn’t matter how much potential you have, you’ll never fulfill it if you’re paralyzed by fear of failure.

It doesn’t matter how good your product is if you won’t try to sell it because you’re afraid of hearing no or how people will react. 

And however intelligent you are, however cogent your strategy is, however much data you gather or analysis you do, unexpected events will always occur. As the military expression goes, “The first casualty of war is the plan.” 

If you won’t adapt your plan or vision in response to real world events — in particular what the market or customers are telling you — you’re doomed to fail. 

Those who accept and embrace uncertainty rather than constantly trying to eliminate or expunge it have a massive advantage in business. 

They try more things, experiment more broadly, are more adaptive, more open-minded, more receptive to feedback, learn more, and as a result, limit their potential downsides while creating potentially unlimited upsides for themselves.

The good news is I’ve taken the stairs so you can take the elevator. 

My new book with Csaba Konkoly, Mastering Uncertainty — which teaches you exactly how to thrive in an unpredictable world — is out at the end of this month.

I can’t wait to hear what you all think of it.

#startup #entrepreneurship #strategy

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