Fire bullets & then cannonballs.
Steve Barker
Creator of Cohesive Leadership Teams | Workplace Culture Specialist | UK Military Veteran | Leadership & Human Behavioural Expert | Acclaimed Author & Catalyst for Change in Organisations | Action Taker
When you are trying something new, fully committing can be fatal.
Imagine you are in the high seas and a pirate ship is heading directly towards you...
You look down and you only have a limited source of gunpowder.
You have plenty of cannonballs and plenty of bullets....
The pirate ship is fast approaching and if you don't act they will board your ship, kill you and steal all you have...
What are you going to do?
Quick, they are getting closer...
You have enough gun powder to...
Fire small bullets or only one cannonball?
You know the cannonball will sink their ship, but the bullets may not...
What will you do?
Hurry, make a decision....
Try this scenario on....
You choose to use all your gun powder , you load up your cannon and fire...
The cannonball flies through the air and misses the pirate ship....
You die!
Or what about this one?
You use a very small amount of gunpowder and fire a bullet and it misses by 20 degrees...
You fire another bullet and that one misses by 10 degrees...
You fire another, this one thuds into the pirate ship...
Now you load up your cannon and fire ... The cannon ball smashes into the pirate ship and it sinks...
You live!
What choice did you initially make?
Fire bullets and then cannonballs...
If you apply this strategy to new things in your life you will be able to calibrate outcomes and choose what gets the use of your critical resources...
It takes discipline to have this level of awareness....
Most people only see the obvious approach, they rush in because of fear or excitement, fully commit and fail .
Learn about yourself and how you behave so that you can have the self-discipline to make the right decision at the most critical times.