You Cannot Take Risks If You Expect Certainty.
It’s natural to be nervous about doing something when you’re not sure about the consequences. Waiting for confidence is safer. However, confidence and risk are also opposites. You cannot take risks if you are sure of the outcome.
As productivity blogger Seth Godin explains, 99% confidence in the outcome is still a risk. On the other hand, being 100% sure is not a risk at all. This is a guarantee. It may not seem like a big difference, but from a psychological point of view, it is huge. In fact, it is so huge that it often prevents many of us from taking risks at all.
Confidence is binary, yes or no. Question: “Are you sure this will work?” – not in work, but in confidence. If you need to know that this will work, then you have chosen a very clear path. Some people go to work or school and do nothing other than what they are sure of.
Another way is to do what may not work. Work, projects designed to land on the spectrum is not sure.
Sometimes you can wait for confidence. If you are crossing the street with a child, it’s a good idea to wait for the extra hundredths of a percent. However, if you are considering getting a job, starting a relationship, or moving to a new city, you can never be 100% sure of the outcome. Obviously, these are all risks. Risk and confidence contradict each other, but by default it doesn’t make the end result bad.
“But how can you be sure?” | Seth Godin