Years ago, treasury agents tasked with identifying counterfeit
currency didn’t have the technology available today and thus relied heavily on the
look and feel of the bills to determine legitimacy. They had to undergo
extensive training, exhaustively studying cold hard cash. However, they rarely
studied counterfeit notes. There were many ways to create fake currency and
endless variations on what the final product might look like with just slight
derivations from the real thing. It was impossible to effectively explore all the
ways a bill could be imitated.
Instead, they analyzed relentlessly only the Real McCoy. By intimately
knowing what a real bill should look like, and recognizing every small detail
and nearly imperceptible mark, anything but legal tender would be quickly
spotted.
I think we can all take a lesson from these agents. Before
embarking on a task or developing something new, its human nature to focus on
everything that might go wrong, all the ways the idea won’t work. The result is
we become paralyzed by fear and convinced of the inevitable failure before an
attempt is even made. The plan or idea is killed off before it’s even given a
chance.
Although it may be true that there are ninety-nine ways your
solution might not work, what would it look like if you vigorously explored the
one way it would work? If you focused on the best available path to success,
rather than all the potential pitfalls along the way, your energy would be much
better spent. Beyond that, your perspective would shift from a defensive,
reactive stance to one that is offensive and reactive.
Yes, it is important to consider contingencies along with weaknesses
in a plan but the negatives can never be the fixation. We must learn to intensely
focus on what must absolutely go right because we can never possibly predict
all the things that could go awry. Also, the more we have studied and are
familiar with the most efficient course, the faster we can adapt and
recalibrate when that path is disrupted. But the most important benefit is the exercise
to think optimistically, which will not only change how we attack a problem but
will most certainly increase the number of challenges we actually take on.
Sure, not every opportunity will work out and you won’t have success all the
time. However, you will miss 100% of
the shots you don’t take.
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