Years ago, I worked for a USAF Colonel named Scott Atkins. He would tell me frequently that, “If 25% of your decisions aren’t wrong, you simply aren’t making enough decisions.”
Action — well thought, purposeful action — must always be rewarded over inaction.
Regarding action and failure, I always remember a couple of things:
1. Good people working for a strong, decisive leader, can make a mediocre or near-poor decision into a rousing success. Not condoning mediocrity, but promoting action, and reminding us to surround ourselves with good people.
2. Sometimes, when we make a decision, we must immediately make another. It doesn’t mean our first decision was “bad,” per se, it’s that the second one was made with additional information — one more thing that “didn’t” work.
So, when leading, Think, Decide, Act. Rinse and repeat.
But that’s just me…
