It’s remarkably strange how often decisions are made without accurate assessments. What’s even more bizaar is how distraught some people get when someone who is analyzing their decision (someone like me) is more interested in the assessment than pulling the trigger on the decision.
Whether it’s a emotionally-laden personal decision or a emotionally-laden business decision, the fact of the matter is that ANY decision where there is some form of expenditure (i.e. a personal relationship commitment or a financial investment) demands a detailed assessment – NOT to the point of paralysis, rather, to the point of Reasonable Assurance (RA).
What Is Reasonable Assurance?
RA is not your opinion or how you “feel” about the decision you’re about to make. No, not at all. RA is about conducting a thorough assessment to the point that the dots are connected via steel beams, not dental floss. RA requires a commitment to your success by accepting the very likely possibility that your “plan” WILL NOT succeed. In other words, the assumption going into an RA Assessment is that there are significant cracks in the highway connecting the concept and the desired outcome, and by REALISTICALLY analyzing those cracks, one can better determine the likelihood of success.
Who’s Afraid Of An RA Assessment?
Unfortunately, there are lots of folks who are afraid of an RA Assessment. More often than not, it’s the individual, business, or organization that has an “idea” of how something should unfold, but has not done due diligence in terms of actually putting together the intricate pieces of the puzzle.
The biggest violators are charismatic “leaders” that share an idea with their followers. The “idea” sounds good for the simple reason that it lacks anything that forces the listener (the follower) to step out of his or her personal comfort zone and/or the Consideration of Acceptability. Put another way, if I were to tell an audience that – in order to create a “Super Money-Making System” that delivers daily checks for $1,000 to their mailbox each and everyday, they would have to purchase a computer program, create a contact list, get a loan for $100,000 to purchase the most critical component, then chances are that the acceptance and uptake of that plan by the audience would be relatively small if not non-existent.
When I “call out” a plan that I know will not work, it’s not because I don’t like the individuals and/or the tools that have chosen to utilize specific to achieving their stated goals. Rather, it’s that the plan lacks the steel bonds that are indicative of a successful outcome.
The person who (or entity) who inherently lacks integrity, who created a plan that is very likely to fail, label people that do the “calling out” as being NEGATIVE. I hear that a lot, and I understand why they choose to label me in that way. After all, if all you have in your hand is a concept that’s likely to fall on its face, then any criticism of said plan will result in a harsh reaction – followed by an attempt to unify the flunkies (a group of people who follow blindly without giving any serious, intellectual thought to who or what they are being asked to follow).
Any major decision that calls for an investment, and any decision that asks others to invest their trust, require an objective RA Assessment. To make a decision based on a reasonable ASSumption, is a decision that is based on false logic and an emotional investment that blinds one from seeing the fractures in the foundation. Inevitably, this approach leads to the inability to achieve the stated outcome, which in the real world, is called FAILURE.
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Have A GREAT Day!
…Dr. Marc & The Mind Virus Team