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- Next step confidence and owning decisions (098)
Next step confidence and owning decisions (098)
1st Law Friday - October 4th 2024
Lucas Dondertman
October 04, 2024
Welcome back to the 1st Law Newsletter - Friday Edition.
In this email:
Next step confidence
Putting names on decisions
Quote by Ann Rand
Next step confidence
When we are faced with a daunting task, fear often gets the best of us. Our imaginations distort the challenge into a frightening event, but we don’t have to submit to our fear. We may not be confident enough to completely overcome the challenge, but we don’t need to be. All we need is enough confidence to make the next step. We don’t need the confidence for the final result… yet. Results breed confidence. It will be a positive feedback loop as we progress and our confidence will steadily grow as we approach the final result.
Fear is often a mile wide and an inch deep. Fear is a mirage. It may look like an ocean that will drown you, but once you take one step you realize that you can stand in it. In fact, you’re not drowning. It’s barely up to your ankles. You can just take another step, and another. Soon enough, you’re walking right through what once terrified you.
What are you really scared of? What is fear holding you back from doing? What would you do if you could not fail? Just take the first step.
Idea from the Modern Wisdom podcast with Shane Parrish, and with Alex Hormozi
Putting names on decisions
“Committees don’t make decisions, people do.”
When a committee makes a decision, nobody has direct responsibility for the outcome. Every decision, even when made in a group, needs somebody to take ownership of the results. If no one wants to take responsibility, it is probably a bad idea and should not be implemented.
Idea from the Modern Wisdom podcast with Shane Parrish.
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and you laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know your society is doomed.”
This sums up what I believe is backwards about society. We have too many of our smartest people going into finance or law, not because they feel a true calling to these subjects, but because they pay well. Our best and brightest are becoming financial engineers, restructuring debt and creating billions of dollars… but they are building nothing. No jobs are created and society is not more productive because of them. We need to realize that this financialization is smoke and mirrors. We don’t need another trillion dollars. We need to build homes, airplanes, create more efficient energy, and make food more abundant.
Thanks for reading!
Lucas