One day I overheard a manager trying to place someone on a team. The person didn’t want it. I did.
So I cut in: “Take me instead.”
The manager said he couldn’t. But he asked the team lead behind the scenes.
The team lead said yes. That team became the best working environment I’ve had.
The ask is the experiment. The answer is just data.
A few months ago, mid flight, half the plane was coughing. I asked the attendant for a mask.
I had no idea if they carried masks. I controlled whether I asked.
They had a mask. But the ask was the experiment either way.
That’s the line between an experiment and a guarantee. You control whether you try. You don’t control whether it works. If you control the outcome, it’s not an experiment.
Some people wait until they feel certain before they act. But for most of what matters, that certainty never arrives.
The world runs on distributions, not certainties.
You can make the right call and still lose, like a good poker hand that doesn’t hit. Over enough attempts, the right moves trend up. But each individual one? Uncertain by design.
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What have you been waiting to try until you’re “sure” it’ll work?
