When your business no longer feels aligned, trust your instincts to make a change. The required pivot may be disruptive and risky, especially if the current model is commercially successful, but your internal wisdom is the most reliable guide for long-term fulfillment and integrity.

Waiting for perfect data leads to paralysis. A core founder skill is making hard decisions with incomplete information. This 'founder gut' isn't innate; it's developed by studying the thought processes—not just the outcomes—of experienced entrepreneurs through masterminds, advisors, or podcasts.

Elite decision-making transcends pure analytics. The optimal process involves rigorously completing a checklist of objective criteria (the 'mind') and then closing your eyes to assess your intuitive feeling (the 'gut'). This 'educated intuition' framework balances systematic analysis with the nuanced pattern recognition of experience.

The process of following your intuition is more important than the outcome. It eliminates the anxiety from going against your gut, making even 'wrong' decisions feel right and leading to less regret.

High-achievers default to a mind-first approach (logic, safety). True intuitive creation requires reversing this hierarchy: prioritize spirit (energy), then check in with the body (somatic response), and finally use the mind for execution and safety.

Founders often start with strong intuition but lose it after achieving success. This occurs because long-held societal conditioning, which teaches individuals to distrust themselves and outsource authority to experts, resurfaces and mutes their inner voice.

Experienced VCs may transition from rigid analytical frameworks to an intuitive search for outliers. Instead of asking if a business plan 'makes sense,' they look for unusual qualities that challenge their worldview and hint at massive potential.

Entrepreneurs are natural risk-takers. Relying solely on logic, which is designed to keep you safe by recalling past failures, stifles the very creative and intuitive superpowers that drive entrepreneurial success.

Instead of a rigid framework, great decisions come from "terroir"—the right mix of ingredients. This includes deep customer empathy, market knowledge, and an intuitive grasp of constraints. This foundation allows a leader's gut instinct to function as a highly trained model.