The Clarity Trap: How Action Can Light the Way

The legendary inventor Thomas Edison famously said, “I have not failed; I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He didn’t wait for perfect clarity. He acted, learned, refined — and through that process, the solution eventually emerged.

That story has always stayed with me. It’s a reminder that clarity often follows action, not the other way around. Yet in our own lives, we often hesitate — waiting for the fog to clear before taking the first step.

There is always a dilemma: should we wait for clarity before acting or take action and find clarity along the way?

The traditional approach states to do “think before you leap.” This is a cautious, calculated approach often taken with a view of avoiding mistakes. This approach has its place, but the flip side is that it can result in one getting stuck in analysis paralysis. We all may have seen this play out in risk-averse environments, both in personal and professional settings.

The alternative is a more iterative approach where we act, observe, and course-correct. This treats mistakes as feedback, not failures. One learns and moves forward from every action, improving every step.

It essentially comes down to one question: is the decision reversible or not?

An irreversible decision requires us to think more deeply and have utmost clarity before committing. Examples include signing a long-term contract, quitting a job, and finding a life partner.

A reversible decision, on the other hand, is something where the cost of a mistake is low and can be corrected easily. Most decisions in life fall under this ambit, and in some cases, delaying action can have costs. Examples include which restaurant to visit, which book to read, and so on.

In practical terms, most day-to-day decisions we face fall into the reversible category. And often, no amount of overthinking can outperform the value of direct experience. As Rumi said, “As you walk, the way appears!” Hence take that plunge, that risk, that chance — test, tinker, and learn from how the world responds!

What’s one decision you’ve been overthinking lately? Could it be more reversible than you think?

How Courage Can Expand Your Life

A personal reflection on how a quote by Anaïs Nin helped me find courage during a tough career phase — and how action creates new possibilities.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage” – Anais Nin

I came across the above powerful quote from Anaïs Nin when I was not exactly in a great frame of mind. I was in a tumultuous situation in my career, and my head was swimming in a cesspool of emotions. The quote actually made me pause and think deeply about my options and ponder on what I could do to put myself in a better position from where I was. I carefully evaluated my options and what actions could put me in a better position relative to where I was. I realized that if I do nothing or stay despondent, then my options narrow. However, if I demonstrated a bias for action and undertook steps, it could open up more optionality for myself. What I needed to do was let go of my beliefs, step out of my comfort zone, and step into the unknown. This eventually would give me a chance to open more opportunities and hopefully expand my life experiences!

Have you had moments where courage opened up new opportunities?

Uber In India – Pivot Back to Customer Delight

When Uber first came into India it stood for great within city travel experience without the hassle of owning a car. The brand was bolstered by superlative experience driven by the accommodating behaviour of the drivers and the support on the app / on call.

Uber changed the dynamics of the buy vs rent decision making when it came to city commutes. No hassles of ownership like taking a loan, getting registrations done, looking for parking spaces, watching out alcohol consumption when you go out etc. etc. Just order an Uber whenever you want to head to a destination.

Over the years, the experience of the brand has deteriorated and this is driven by a change in behaviour both on the app and from drivers. Following are the pain points:

1. Booking a cab: Today, wait times for a cab has drastically increased with driver cancellations being a norm rather than an exception. Additionally users are charged if they cancel a ride but receive no compensation if drivers cancel.

2. In cab experience: Drivers refuse to switch the AC on. Many a times, cars are not the cleanest available thus deteriorating the experience

3. Complaint Handling: The chat feature does not put a customer in touch with a real person and is highly impersonal. Moreover there is no human touch in the customer complaint handling process.

All these factors point to business focus moving away from creating an experience for customers (to probably efficiency or effectiveness metrics) which in turn is leading to behaviours that are not favourable to customers. This in turn is leading to a deterioration in the brand perception with customers looking for other options which could hurt the business over time.

What Uber could do is the following:

1. Ensure that rides are guaranteed once booked. This could also mean reducing cabs to control the quality of experience and over time charging a premium for great service. Drivers would also need to be better incentivized to provide a great experience.

2. Ensure customer service is available on call and treat customer service as an experience rather than a cost center. This can improve customer experience over time and have a rub off impact on brand image.

Uber may have to sacrifice scale with this approach. However, by taking difficult decisions to improve user experience, the brand in the long run may benefit from better love for customers. Improved customer satisfaction levels can help command premium pricing which in turn can lead to better Life Time Value.

Wishing Uber all the very best in India!

Building Resilience – 2

Week 2 of the Building Personal Resilience course, by Macquarie University on Coursera, focuses on the different types of stressors.

Stressors are the causes of stress and are of 4 types:

1. Time Demands: This typically comes into play when we are overwhelmed due to a lack of time to finish a task. Time passes by quickly as we approach the deadline. Please note this feeling of time passing by rapidly can also happen in activities where we have high engagement, such as reading a thrilling page-turner. Time stressors can increase fatigue and exhaustion and reduce our ability to work to our full capacity.

2. Interpersonal Conflicts: This happens due to conflicts with team members. There has been a focus on teams with diverse skill-sets in recent years. The underlying assumption of this is that a team with varied skillsets and backgrounds can solve problems better. While this may work well for problems requiring innovation, diversity may inadvertently hurt teams when they have a task to be accomplished in a standard way. Interpersonal conflicts stem from self-interest, and since each of us has varying self-interests, there is a likelihood of our interests conflicting with that of team members. In such cases, the fight/flight response takes over, and either we get into arguments with team members or we back off from the situation. In both cases, the impact is negative on our teams and us. Interpersonal conflict can arise due to the demands of our job for investing in emotional labour. Most people who work in customer-facing industries have experienced irate customers and would have had to hold back their true feelings and adhere to company guidelines while dealing with customers. These again take a toll on us.

3. Situational Stressors: This occurs due to unique circumstances in our environment. For example, someone travelling long distances daily to get to work may experience more stress. This could be because of the stress in navigating traffic or the fear of getting late to work. Studies have shown that most people prefer the ideal commute time to be 16 minutes. Recent work-from-home culture has led to people reporting that they miss the commute to work. This is because people use commute time to transition between work and home.

4. Anticipatory Stressors: These are situations where we undergo stress due to anticipation of unpleasant events. For example, a contract worker will experience stress closer to the end of the contract as they are anxious to know if the contract will be renewed or not.

The above is a short summary of my interpretation of learning’s from week 2 of the course, and I am eagerly looking forward to week 3!

Building Resilience – 1

I recently enrolled in a course on Building Personal Resilience, by Macquarie University, on Coursera. Here are a few learnings from Week 1 of the course:

1. Stress is omnipresent in nearly all walks of life.

2. Some people respond to stress better than others.

3. The amount of stress we experience in the workplace is a function of our skill sets, our manner of working, and how we interact with others.

4. Historically, whenever humans are under stress, we tend to respond with a flight or fight response. These responses may have served us well in tackling dangers from predators, but these are not apt responses for modern workplaces.

5. We have no choice but to learn the nature of stress, find ways to manage stress, and build resilience. Doing so can help us navigate stress in a variety of situations that we may encounter.

The relationship between stress and productivity is not always inverse. In cases where the demands on a worker are lower than the workers skill sets and ability, there is a likelihood of the worker getting bored and, therefore, disillusioned with work. At the other end of the spectrum, if a worker is overburdened with work, he will experience anxiety and even have a breakdown in extreme cases. The optimum state is where the demands on a worker are in sync with the worker’s ability.

The Stress-Resilience Framework:

The stress resilience framework consists of the following elements:

1. Stressors: These are the cause of stress. These could range from demands on our time, demands on our work, and our anticipation of demands on us.

2. Stress Reactions: These are physiological reactions to stress and could range from heavy breathing, high BP, dryness of throat, sweating etc.

3. Resilience: This is the capability of an individual to handle stress and navigate challenges thrown to them.

4. Direct Resilience: These are ways to cope with stress by avoiding stressors or reaching out to a support network to talk about stress being experienced.

5. Lifestyle Resilience: These are changes we undertake in our lifestyle that can help us cope with stress better. Example: exercising and sleeping optimally.

Week 1 was exciting, and I look forward to week 2!