One of the things that I love about doing business with Americans is that they aren’t afraid to make a decision. It always strikes me as extraordinary that decision-makers are often pretty horrible at actually making decisions. I’m not referring to the process of analyzing the issues at hand – they are generally great at that, rather they are really bad at actually getting out of the analysis and making the call.
I have long believed that this, more than any other single characteristic, is what differentiates the US (and makes them so successful) in business. Their business leaders aren’t afraid to make a decision, largely because they aren’t afraid of the consequences if they get it wrong. What the conservative people don’t realize is that by not making a decision they are guaranteeing that they will miss the opportunity – those that make the call are giving themselves a chance of success.
That isn’t to say one should rush around making haphazard calls on things but I think that we place far too much emphasis on knowing everything before making a decision. If you wait until you know 100% of the information available you have waited too long – this may have been fine 100 years ago but it just doesn’t fly today.
