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Why smart people walk in a confident hamster wheel
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Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics did one of those experiments that sounds stupid… Not because you probably pay them with your taxes… But because you realise it explains half of the disasters in business. They took people to a forest. Then they gave them a simple instruction: “Walk in a straight line.” That’s it. No MBA. No strategy deck. No 147-page governance framework. Just walk straight. C’mon you can do it! Several participants were convinced they had done exactly that. Reality had other plans. The GPS showed they had walked in circles. Some of them in loops smaller than 20 metres. Twenty metres. That’s not a walk. That’s a very confident hamster wheel. And there is the lesson. People don’t walk in circles because they are stupid. They walk in circles because they don’t have reliable cues. No landmarks. No direction. No external reference. And the scary thing? They still feel confident. That should blow your mind. Now think about projects. Or business… Or whatever. The same happens every day. Smart people. Good intentions. Lots of movement. Beautiful reports. And still… Circles. Nobody in the room really knows where “straight” is. This is why experience matters. This is why clear thinking matters. This is why being in the right room matters. Great professionals are not made by walking harder. They are made by learning how to see direction when everyone else is confidently going nowhere. That’s what is learned in The Room. Stop walking in circles. Click below. ​The Room​ PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day. PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below. |
Vicente Valencia
Weekly insights on how to perform when it matters | High-stakes decisions. Real situations. No BS. | 👇JOIN +2k readers 👇
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