Ten Business Tips – by Byron Reese

1. Separate Your Ego from Your Job.

You are far more than what you do. If your business fails, it failed, not you. If someone doesn’t like your product or your idea, you can’t let it get you down. Don’t let other people define how you feel about yourself. 

This is very useful, because

2. You Will Be Wrong More Often Than You Are Right.

There are simply more wrong answers than right ones. The goal is to occasionally be right. But since your ego isn’t tied to what you do, it’s OK to be wrong and make mistakes. They don’t bother you.

The reason this is all true is because

3. Good Ideas Look a Lot Like Bad Ideas.

Except in retrospect. Then it all seems obvious. But at the time, it’s really hard to tell them apart. The world is just too complicated. 

So how do you make progress in such a world?

4. Enlightened Trial and Error Outperforms the Reasoning of a Flawless Intellect.

In other words, you learn by doing, not by thinking. Try a lot of stuff. Fail often. Keep trying. Don’t let it get you down. 

It’s tempting to try to figure things all out. But be warned:

5. Don't Believe Everything You Think.

Just because something makes sense to you, doesn’t mean it makes sense. Think of all the times in the past you felt one way about something and now, looking back, you can’t believe you thought that way. Don’t let this paralyze you. Just remember to keep an open mind. 

Similarly, when making decisions, there is another useful rule of thumb:

6. The Person Who Argues Best is Not More Likely to be Right

We are trained to listen to arguments and make choices on whoever made the best case. This rewards good debaters, not good ideas. Try to see past how people say things, how convincing they are, what statistics they cite. They could argue the other side just as well. 

So how do you make decisions? It’s actually easy:

7. Trust Your Gut.

Never use “your gut” as an excuse not to do the hard work of learning the facts and thinking about them. But in the end, trust your gut. Your mind works in ways you don’t understand and gives you the results of experiences you have long forgotten and wouldn’t apply to this situation. Listen to it. Plus, nothing makes you feel more like an idiot than going against your gut and then being wrong.

This leads us to the next point:

8. Have a Bias Towards Action.

If it’s all about trying and failing, then try lots of things. Babe Ruth may have hit a lot of home runs, but he struck out more than anyone else too. Failing and success go hand-in-hand. Just get out there and play.

Then it follows that

9. Perseverance is All That Matters.

I don’t want to sound like a motivational poster, but it’s like the old saying, “What you will not let go of, no man can take from you.” You only have failed when you finally quit. Otherwise, the jury is still out. Stick with it. You will be wrong a lot, make boneheaded mistakes, be convinced you are on to something only to fail. That’s life. 

Finally

10. In Business, Lists of Ten Things Are More Credible Than Nine

It makes it look like poor planning if you only have nine points. Put a 10th one in there. Really jazz the list up. It can be a pretty useless point, but sometimes you have to play the game. Think about that. There is more to this tip than you realize.