Smart people use their intelligence to create convincing narratives that justify flawed decisions. This prevents them from acknowledging and learning from their mistakes, making them more likely to repeat the same errors.
Leadership teams often fail because they collectively treat a shared assumption as an objective fact. This prevents them from ever questioning or testing the core premise of their strategy, leading to catastrophic and avoidable errors.
Genuine curiosity provides the intrinsic motivation needed for sustained effort. To test if a goal is truly yours, ask: "Would I still pursue this if no one ever knew I achieved it?" If the answer is no, it's likely for external validation and is unsustainable.
Defining success by outcomes you can't fully control (e.g., winning a championship) leads to frustration. Instead, frame goals around processes you can control (e.g., preparing perfectly), which increases your chances of success and builds a healthier mindset.
Mind sports like poker and strategic board games intuitively teach crucial business skills, such as making decisions under uncertainty and decoupling the quality of a decision from its outcome. They provide a low-cost way to develop executive decision-making capabilities.
Focusing on singular events like a failed project misses the point. The key to improvement is to analyze recurring failures to find the underlying pattern in your thinking or behavior (e.g., consistently underestimating challenges) and address that root cause.