My Reality Check Bounced! - Jason Ryan Dorsey [26]
Two months later, the successful entrepreneur Danny trusted skipped town and took everyone’s registration money with him. Danny then used Google to search for the guy’s name and instantly found out that he was a serial con artist! In hindsight, all Danny had to do was a little bit of research, and he would have known the whole thing was a scam. Instead, he ran with an assumption that turned out to be incorrect and ended up burning himself, his family, his friends—and his reputation!
Assumptions aren’t just bad when they lead to painful consequences; they can be equally bad if they blind you to a potentially great opportunity. When you assess opportunities based on assumptions rather than facts, you can easily overlook tremendous opportunity because you assume it’s not there. This turns off your creative genius, so your attention moves elsewhere. You stop tinkering, looking, and exploring the potential opportunity from different angles. The result is that once you assume an opportunity doesn’t exist, it no longer does—for you.
So how do you dodge incorrect assumptions that can lead to unnecessary pain and avoidable setbacks? How do you also know you’ve fully explored an opportunity before it becomes a missed opportunity? How can you find out whether you’re living with assumptions right now that are keeping valuable opportunities out of reach? You cut through your assumptions by asking and answering direct questions.
Questions that demand facts separate incorrect assumptions from informed decisions. Before you even consider making a big decision based on an assumption, do the following:
1. Ask specific questions. If you’re not sure about something, keep asking until you find out what you need to know. Don’t assume you know and think it’s the same thing. If the person you ask for answers is unsure, ask other people until you feel confident with the quality of the information you’ve gathered.
2. Dig deeper. Before you write off an opportunity as a time-consuming dead end, approach the opportunity from different angles. Sometimes the most rewarding opportunities are the ones other people have missed.
3. Get a second opinion. If you have no choice but to go ahead based on an assumption, get advice from people you trust before you take action. They may not have all the facts either, but they have wisdom that can help you make a more experienced decision.
With a Future Picture that motivates you to action you shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions until you get the answers you need. It’s much better to be teased for asking what seems to be a dumb question than to make an errant assumption that confirms you are dumb! I see it this way: If asking two or three questions can improve my chances of making the right decision, I ask ten. Questions lead to facts, and facts lead to good decisions. Good decisions lead to progress, and progress eventually gets you to your Future Picture.
WARNING: OPPORTUNITES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL
Once you choose to see the world as overflowing with opportunity, you will find yourself inundated with new ideas and options. Now you face a different dilemma: separating the great opportunities from the mediocre ones. This is important because you have a limited amount of time to pursue opportunity, so you want to invest it where you can get the most value for your efforts.
To help you sort through opportunities to find the best one I’ve identified six questions you should ask. Together, these questions are the most consistently effective method I’ve found for separating golden opportunity from time-consuming distractions. These Six Questions of Opportunity are not always easy to answer. However, the answers will make it easy for you to decide whether to jump on an opportunity or keep looking.
THE SIX QUESTIONS OF OPPORTUNITY