Think Scale. Else Expect To leave A Tenure, Not A Legacy.

"Say less. Do More." It's an easy and popular formula, but its also a quirk in approach that may turn out to be a notorious "thinking" enemy. It stops you from exploring the true potential of otherwise attractive opportunities. I call this the difference between "prediction" and "forecasting". In either cases, we are gazing into a crystal ball. But the former requires a higher level of skill and application, which fortunately come from your collected experiences, attitude and self belief. 

"Prediction" calls for deeper introspection and exploration in the realm of known and unknown; and that realm is encountered almost always while making decisions. To revisit this concept recollect the broken window fallacy, where the opportunity of the broken window provided business to a glass vendor was an easy vision to make. But what most missed was that it could also have lead to the loss of business to a suit maker. A choice when made involves the sacrificing of a choice that wasn't made. And to each choice eventually, we may or may not, attribute net value. Because its tough to assess when you don't tend to investigate enough what the other choices meant and what could have come in your way and what could not? The outcome is never, I repeat, never in your hands and thats explained well in macroeconomics. But how you could get there, most times, is in your hands and thats explained in the process of body building. A practical example is the survival instinct in sales approach. You have to save your days, your months and your quarters. You start ignoring what these choices may do beyond the year ahead. And there then you place most decisions within choice sets that may deliver only immediate impact. Step back and review if you are “thinking small”? Stepping back does not mean you spend time paralysing your "present day" decision speed. But it does mean that you have an opportunity to "think big" today. Your "visions of tomorrow" may hint that your choices could be altered to represent the "scale" of what could really be done/achieved over time. After all, you are in it to leave a legacy, not just a tenure.  

You take bets, get to a certain scale. And that scale takes you to a higher scale. And when you take bets, those bets still ought to represent value thats beyond the realm of just today. When applied with discipline and passion, these choices unleash what Paulo Coelho shared in his "universe conspiring in your favour" quote. Go ahead, "Think Scale". Especially if you are in one of those "emerging economies". 

VJ