The Levels of Proof


Amar Pandit
A respected entrepreneur with 25+ years of Experience, Amar Pandit is the Founder of several companies that are making a Happy difference in the lives of people. He is currently the Founder of Happyness Factory, a world-class online investment & goal-based financial planning platform through which he aims to help every Indian family save and invest wisely. He is very passionate about spreading financial literacy and is the author of 4 bestselling books (+ 2 more to release in 2020), 8 Sketch Books, Board Game and 700 + columns.

December 2, 2022 | 2 Minute Read
A few weeks back, I wrote a Nano headlined “The Two Types of Business Model Risks.”
In it, I wrote “The first type of Business Model Risk is Information Risk.
Defined simply, Information Risk is a feature of a business model that requires you to make decisions without sufficient information. We will never have complete and perfect information. We need to learn to make decisions in the absence of such (complete and perfect) information. This is a skill that we all need to build.”
While I have briefly highlighted how we need to overcome this risk, the key point is that many of us require different levels of proof to act early and often.
Some (like me and my team) require low levels of proof. We act early and many times miss shots. But we make progress, and we learn.
There are others who require very high levels of proof. This is a behaviour seen in big corporations. It’s surprising to see this behaviour in entrepreneurs in our industry/profession. And I am not writing about some start-up entrepreneur. I am talking about distributors and advisors from all over the country. Many don’t act even when action is warranted. They stay still until they are pushed in motion.
Our problem is so well highlighted by this Charles Bukowski quote – “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubt, while stupid people are full of confidence.”
While avoiding stupid people is important, the key is to overcome our biggest mountain – the doubt we have on ourselves.
The answers to the following questions might give you an insight or two:
1.What level of proof (low or high) do I need to act early and often?
2. Do any of my recent actions demonstrate this?
A David Sedaris quote rings a bell here – “Speed eliminates all doubt. Am I smart enough? Will people like me? Do I really look alright in this plastic jumpsuit?”
Will you then use Speed to eliminate all doubt?
I am curious to know what you think.
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