Instead of waiting for complete information, Alexander Titus's model for action is to ensure the next immediate step is not an irreversible mistake. This allows for faster movement and exploration, as most professional decisions can be undone, unlike major life choices like debt or family.
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To overcome analysis paralysis from a previous failure, a 48-hour deadline was set to launch a new business and earn $1 in revenue. This extreme constraint forced rapid action, leading to quick learning in e-commerce, dropshipping, and online payments, proving more valuable than months of planning.
When facing ambiguity, the best strategy is not to wait for perfect information but to engage in "sense-making." This involves taking small, strategic actions, gathering data from them, and progressively building an understanding of the situation, rather than being paralyzed by analysis.
Overcome the fear of big life decisions by making them reversible. First, identify the worst-case scenario and create a pre-planned safety net (e.g., saving enough for a flight home). Once the downside is protected, you can commit to the action with significantly less fear and more focus.
Action, even incorrect action, produces valuable information that clarifies the correct path forward. This bias toward doing over planning is a key trait of outliers. Waiting for perfect information is a silent killer of ambition, while immediate action creates momentum and reveals opportunities.
Instead of waiting for a complete picture, courageous leaders take small, experimental actions to 'sense make' their way through ambiguity. This process, observed in emergency responders, involves acting, observing cues, and rapidly iterating. It is about learning by doing, not planning everything perfectly in advance.
A founder's retrospective analysis often reveals that delayed decisions were the correct ones, and the only regret is not acting sooner. Recognizing this pattern—that you rarely regret moving too fast—can serve as a powerful heuristic to trust your gut and accelerate decision-making, as inaction is often the biggest risk.
Aim to make decisions when you have between 40% and 70% of the necessary information. Striving for more than 70% leads to slow, inefficient decision-making, allowing competitors to get ahead. The key is making timely, good-enough decisions, not perfect ones.
Categorize decisions by reversibility. 'Hats' are easily reversible (move fast). 'Haircuts' are semi-permanent (live with them for a bit). 'Tattoos' are irreversible (think carefully). Most business decisions are hats or haircuts, but we treat them like tattoos, wasting time.
When deciding whether to leave a stable job to start Amazon, Jeff Bezos asked which choice he would regret more at age 80. People are far more haunted by the opportunities they didn't take than the ones they took that failed. This is a powerful mental model for making bold career leaps.
Adopt a new operating system for decision-making. Instead of evaluating choices based on an unattainable standard of perfection, filter every action through a simple question: does this choice result in forward progress, or does it keep me in a state of inaction? This reframes the goal from perfection to momentum.
