Analysis
Paralysis
Fred
Wilson writes:
I was talking to an entrepreneur today and advised him not to
surrender to "analysis paralysis".
It's tempting to want to analyze every option and figure out
exactly the best approach before jumping in.
But it's the wrong way to go in most cases.
As a contrast, I attended a board meeting today where the CEO
presented the board with a post-mortem on some decisions he made
that turned out to be suboptimal. That was a stand up thing to do
and the board appreciated it. But I am not sure that the CEO in
question did the wrong thing.
Because I believe that Teddy Roosevelt (one of my favorite
Presidents) had it right when he said: "In any moment of decision
the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing
is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
I think action and risk taking is what separates great
entrepreneurs from the pack. I am not advocating blind risk taking,
but I am advocating making a decision based on less than perfect
information and going for it. More often than not, you will be
rewarded for doing that.