Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson. This business fable is about adapting quickly to change. The characters who succeed are those who make fast decisions and act, rather than waiting for perfect information or circumstances. The story is widely used in American business to encourage employees to embrace quick, adaptive decision-making.
Bad Blood
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. This investigative account of the Theranos scandal highlights how rapid, sometimes reckless, decision-making is embedded in American startup culture. Executives and investors often made decisions quickly to seize opportunities, sometimes at the expense of thoroughness. The book underscores both the benefits and dangers of the “move fast, fix later” approach.
“Time is money”
“Time is money.” Time wasted is opportunity lost; acting quickly is essential for success.
“Strike while the iron is hot.”
“Strike while the iron is hot.” Take action at the right moment-don’t wait, or you might miss your chance.
“… enemy of the good”
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” It’s better to make a good decision quickly than to wait for a perfect one that may never come.
Nature of the Problem
H.R. McMaster, February 2017 until April 2018 National Security Advisor under President Donald Trump, describes how critical it was at the beginning of his tenure to get clarity on scope. Listen to minutes 3:00 to 4:15 about “the nature of the problem”, and about “framing out the problem”:
McMaster earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He turned his dissertation on the strategy of the U.S. in the Vietnam War into his book entitled Dereliction of Duty.
Take risks
Jeff Bezos. Founder of Amazon. About being bold: 0:00 to 2:45 minutes.
American Optimism
Mark Shields was a long-time political journalist. He had a nationally-sydicated column for decades, and was well known for his weekly analysis with David Brooks – a New York Times columnist – on the PBS NewsHour. Listen to minutes 7:28 to 9:25.
If you get killed, at least you won’t know it.
In some cases, Americans are willing to take risks even if no corrective measures are possible. This has been particularly evident in Americans’ willingness to risk death during air and spacecraft testing and early use.
Apollo engineer Jerry Woodfill once said “Among the early space missions, I’ve always believed that the greatest courage was needed by their first crews. Whether it was Al Shepard, the Apollo 1 crew, or shuttle astronauts John Young or Bob Crippen, the most likely danger would be the first time any new space craft was launched into space. Flaws in design or manufacture could very well be fatal during maiden missions.”
American Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, once said “It’s your duty to fly the airplane. If you get killed in it, you don’t know anything anyway.”
Some examples of Americans who knew they were risking death to go into space include:
On April 13, 1970, two days after its launch, an oxygen tank aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft exploded.
This led to a desperate attempt for the astronauts to return to earth alive – one that nearly didn’t succeed. Less than a year later, despite having just witnessed an almost-fatal mission, the Apollo 14 spacecraft launched with three crewmembers on board.
On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after lift-off, killing all seven crew members on board. However, prior to the launch, the astronauts were warned that some of the engineers were worried about the effect of unusually low temperatures on the seals for the solid rocket boosters.
Although they were not told the extent of the engineers’ concerns, they were warned that launching on January 28th would be more dangerous than waiting for the next available launch date, and asked if they wanted to postpone. All seven decided that their mission was worth the risk of launching on schedule.