The true warrior reads the signs and portents. They consult the seer, but they act in response to facts and empirical evidence. The famous Indian weather-forecasting stone works as follows: if the stone is wet, it is raining. If the stone is hot, it is sunny. If you can’t see the stone, it is snowing. One hundred per cent accurate, one hundred per cent of the time!
No matter how strong your opinion is regarding the condition of the stone tomorrow—no matter how incredible the feeling is or how strong your intuition—you will not be 100 per cent accurate, 100 per cent of the time.
Conversely, no matter what a prospect says they are going to do in the future, or what they believe they want (that they don’t currently have), it will not be true 100 per cent of the time. Of course, those of us who are optimistic will say that we have some secret source of information or combination of faith/belief that tells us that, contrary to the facts, it will be different for us. It will be true. Ha! The true warrior knows that we are delusional. Yes, we are delusional. That is a fact. We are delusional. You are delusional. They are delusional. Everyone is delusional. This is another great secret that the true warrior embraces!
From experience, true warriors have learned that everything takes longer and costs more than they could ever imagine, and had they known the facts up front, they would never have embarked on that particular course of action. What then? Just sit and wait? No, that won’t help. Instead, true warriors try to learn and acknowledge their limitations, and understand that achieving their goals is difficult, time consuming, challenging, and risky. The true warrior uses tools and techniques to try to mitigate delusional risk taking.
The pre-mortem for example. We have talked about pre- and post-mortems: proactive planning for failures that may happen, and after-death (or failure) analysis of why deaths (or failures) occurred. The pre-mortem is a particularly helpful tool. After you have decided on a course of action, all the warriors gather together for a period of reflection before engaging the enemy. At this time, each warrior is asked to imagine the worst possible fate of the proposed course of action. Then they engage in the post-mortem analysis and write up a short report, detailing why the plan failed so catastrophically. Then the warriors each share their insights and collectively see if the plan needs to be revised as a result of this fresh insight, which pierced the veil of the collective delusion, and then they do the same thing again with the revised plan.
The true warrior understands that, by applying the scientific method to all product or service modifications and enhancements, we can actually determine whether or not an activity creates value, and this reminds us that, if an activity does not create value, it is waste. This is where value is defined as something that someone is willing to pay for. This is the Indian weather stone in action. If people are parting with money more frequently, or in greater amounts, then it is sunny and life is great—because it is working.
The true warrior knows when to get out of the rain and the snow, and how to embrace the sunshine of the spirit by doing, again and again, the thing that works—as demonstrated by evidence, not by a hunch, feeling, or intuition.
You are warriors, and through this simple but effective method, you will prevail. You will create that which has not previously been comprehended, and you will come to enjoy your life on the sunny side of the street. So it has been written.