How indecision results in failure.
I've just gotten back from two weeks at "the lake" with my family. My wife, as many of you know has Alzheimer's, and as a result the first two days were horrible for me. But after that adjustment I had a grand time just realizing that she would have enjoyed the vacation as much as I. Few Walleye this year, but the largemouth bass were really biting. I caught a 15 inch, 3.5 pound largemouth bass, and we walked away with filet from a dozen fish. Steve, my son-in-law, caught a 33 inch pike, loaded with eggs, so we tossed it back.
While fishing we watched two bald eagles chasing an osprey with a fish in its mouth. One eagle went for the osprey, and the other went for the fish when it was dropped. The osprey flew off, sans fish, chased by the eagle. That's called team work. My eleven-year-old grandson, Henry, however, thought that those bald eagles are mean birds.
We also spent several days on a pontoon boat in the middle of the lake, jumping off and climbing back on. This reads dumb, but it was hilarious. Kids and their parents pushed each other off and clambered back up. I asked my seven-year-old granddaughter, Ariadne, how many times she jumped off and got her response: "Hundreds of times." Funny how often simple things can be happy things.
My Gen-Y protege, Liam, came up for a few days to join the hilarity. After successfully finishing the GMAT, he needed to unwind. On the second evening, he was playing spider solitaire and Ariadne came over to watch. They played until nearly 1 a.m. She loved it, and though Liam was heading back to the cities the next morning, she collected on him for another session--for two-and-a half hours!!##@@ At the end of the second session, she was talking strategy, choices and breakdowns. She's going into second grade this Fall, so I was really amazed at her insights.
The highlight of the week, however, was the celebrated turtle races of Nisswa, Minnesota. You really won't believe this until you've seen it, but here goes. The turtle races have been going on for nearly 50 years, every Wednesday during the summer at 2PM. The races take place in the parking lot in front of one of the short strip malls, across from the tourist center. Nisswa is a big town of 1,532 people. The audience and participants for the turtle races number at least 1,000. I counted them.
The turtle track is two concentric circles. The inner circle has a diameter of about 15 feet, enough for 20 contestants and their turtles. The second circle adds about 40 feet to the original diameter. The hot pavement is kept wet to protect the turtles.
When the whistle blows, all twenty contestants drop their turtles and start throwing water on them to get them to move. You can't push the turtle with your hand, nor can you step over the line once they're off in the running. A seventy-year-old quickly that lesson when he stepped over the line to push his turtle. He was immediately disqualified. Can you bet on the race? Not legally.
In the third race, one turtle really took off. Just watching him run was an eye-opener. Everyone was screaming, clapping and urging him on. He was way out in front of all the other turtles, until, that is. . . he got to the finish line. About two inches from the finish line, he stopped dead. He looked to the right, the left, straight ahead. . . and just kept looking. Everyone was screaming, laughing, tossing water on him, but no: he just sat there looking. He couldn't make up his mind to crawl confidently over the finish line. Meanwhile four or five other turtles passed him up.
That turtle's behavior reminds me of some so-called leaders I've met in the past. Can't make a decision and move on. Yet, from case studies of great military leaders to experiments with MBA students, the research shows that acting confidently will help you to become confident. In other words, "belief follows behavior." One of my colleagues responds to people who can't make up their minds, who get all caught up in the pros and cons of a decision, with this adage: "just get on with it."
In his wonderful new book, Good Boss, Bad Boss, Bob Sutton relates that one of the reasons that General George Washington was so successful, even though he screwed up constantly, was that he always looked and acted confidently. "Faking it until you make it" triggers a self-fulfilling prophecy of success, impacting not only yourself, but those around you. Indecision, like that turtle, often results in failure.