My first mentor at McKinsey gave me this feedback: “Everything else is fine, but you need to be more comfortable with ambiguity.”
I don’t know what my team had told him, but as engineers, we are trained to solve precise problems, with irrefutable logic, leading to one right answer. Every other answer is wrong.
In the business world, however, everything is ambiguous. Forget statistically significant data — you might base your business case on two customer conversations 😊.
And most questions sound like: Should you price your product at Rs 1,000 or 10,000? Will a 10-minute delivery work? Should you prioritize growth or profitability?
For every convincing argument, there is an equally convincing counter-argument. And problem-solving feels more like muddling around than a logical process.
Using your judgment, intuition, or experience, if you can solve complex problems in ambiguous environments, you will find a seat at the leadership table. And that is one way to 10x your income.
One of the things I have learned as an entrepreneur is to walk into a situation having no idea what to do, but still have the confidence that you can figure it out.
Any job or role that can give you that confidence is priceless.
– Rajan