Dealing with Overwhelm and Uncertainty with Abie Braha

 Feeling overwhelmed by the constant uncertainty in business? You're not alone. In this episode, we dive into why the pursuit of complete clarity can be a trap for entrepreneurs and business leaders. Discover how successful businesses thrive by embracing the unknown and taking calculated risks. We'll share real-life examples, including a story about a business owner struggling to find his footing and the lessons he learned. Join us as we explore practical strategies to navigate ambiguity, stay adaptable, and keep your business moving forward even when the path isn't clear. Tune in to learn how to overcome overwhelm and thrive without all the answers. 

Transcript

I got something really important here that I want to discuss because it's so counterintuitive to what so many of us think. I had this guy, he successful business guy, he had a business, obviously changing details here. But he had a different a real estate firm, and he broke up with his partners, sold out. And now he was getting back into the business. And he's getting back into the business. When he has this issue has this struggle, trying to get it right. You know, he has different things that come up and he's getting stuck. Like, am I doing this thing right? Am I doing that thing right? Is this the right step to take? Is it not the right step to take? And he sent me a message saying, you know, I had this opportunity to go into this like super intense five day workshop where I feel like maybe it'll give me this clarity that I finally need. It'll get me back in my game because I'm not in my game and like, what do you think about that? And at first glance, it's like, okay, great, let's get him on his game. But there's a massive issue here. And that is that you cannot function as a business by thinking that you're going to get yourself a level of clarity. That businesses don't really function within. The greatest businesses are working within a space where they don't have clarity. and they're taking calculated risks. And what we need to be able to do is function within that space. That means jump in, play the game to the best of your ability, learn from your mistakes, and run with it. But sometimes we get so locked in trying to figure out the answers. And thinking that if we would only figure out the answers, then we're good, but that puts us in a space where the only way we can function is when we gain that level of clarity. Which isn't really practical. Does that make sense? A hundred percent. I think it's like we always get stuck on trying to make everything perfect when you should just be doing it and just getting into it. Yeah. I think that when we, you know, we, we think there's this perfect answer. You know, we overvalue the knowledge that we have. And we often. put down the knowledge that we don't have. The best business deals or the best business ideas in the world have a significant chance of going bad. And we talk about this a lot on this show, but there's a significant chance of every business going like, you don't know, maybe the pipe will burst. It will flood this place. Like, I mean, like if anything COVID taught us, right? Like, boom, we're going to have something that no one ever thought. Right? There's so the housing crisis. Now in retrospect, it looks so obvious. It wasn't obvious at the time. No one thought that good largest companies in America, which everyone relied on and never thought would have any issues, would just go belly up. Like that wasn't a thing. So we, we take our knowledge and we give it too much credit. And then we try to get clarity and full comfort on the parts that we have. But if we're really going to function only through that lens of I got this worked out. We have two big issues. Number one is we will not function until we gain that clarity, which is impossible for a business to work with, because we cannot work only with full clarity because you'll just fail by the time you get that clarity. And number two is we're going to be blind to the parts that we don't know, because we get so zoned in on the fact that now I have clarity. that we don't see all the other parts that come up as we go along the process. And then we go belly up because things hit us from left field that we didn't notice. At the end of the day, the best space we could be in is being able to look at our business ideas and really so much of what we function in. As this sort of game that I gotta just be able to flow with rather than thinking I'm gonna be able to figure everything out and then function through that space if we're going to keep on looking to figure that out, we're not going to be able to function at the highest level. We're not going to get ourselves to do that stuff. We're going to wait forever to take our first step. I will never be able to dance. And that's what it's about just being able to dance to the music, not getting it all right. And it reminds me of that, you know, there's that line in horse betting, something along the lines of always bet the jockey never bet the horse, right? The idea is that you can have a perfect chorus and a billing. Like the idea is to be able to move and maneuver and play the track, not about getting clarity. And if you want to know where you want to get to get you to succeed, it's not about being at your highest level. It's about being able to dance in the rain and that, and that's, and that's really, you know, but that's between the raindrops and continuously pivot. That's what it's about. And I don't know much about horse betting, but I feel like you tell me if this is a good example. Um, like, I feel like the, the example of this on like the largest scale is Elon Musk buying Twitter. That's like, like he didn't even know what, what was going on. I don't even know if he got the numbers. He was probably just like, this seems like a good business and like, I'm just going to do it. Nothing figured out. It's so interesting because I think that Elon Musk's life. is a good example of this concept. And maybe a good example of where this concept went south as well. Right? Because like, it doesn't seem that Twitter was a good investment for him. But but the way he succeeded was always to be able to play that like, he's nuts on this, right? So he'll be like, Oh, yeah, I'll just move it like this. So he's like, so like, Oh, yeah, we'll just do this. Oh, yeah, I'll just buy Twitter. And like, there might be a cap to that concept. Because like, it doesn't mean just go like, completely crazy and be like, Okay, I'll throw 60 billion at something and I don't even know where the numbers are at. Obviously things these but I think Elon Musk is a great example of this concept of being able to play in that game of like, you know, and I we've talked about this on the show about that. What's what's called again, I forget that show name where those people are. What is it like the 90 day? I don't know entrepreneur thing where like they come without any money and they're like supposed to build up a business. undercover billionaire. Yeah, undercover billionaire. And and I think what's fascinating about the mindset and that show is the Israeli this concept like they're coming in with a certain assuredness. All I need to do is play the game. I don't know how it's going to end up. I don't know, you know, and they're very sure of it because they're very sure themselves. I'm not necessarily a big believer in that, like, that I know all the answers on the contrary, I think that I don't know. so many of the answers. But what I believe in is that every day I'll learn more. And everything is figure outable. And, and that's not a word. But I love it. Because, like, that's the mindset of success is the ability to be able to say like, yeah, a lot of garbage is going to come up. And like, that doesn't even matter, because it will work out. And it doesn't have to mean because you believe in yourself, it could be you believe in a higher power that works things out and God is merciful and hope, yeah, I'll be fine. Like, yeah, not saying I'm the greatest guy, but like, it's all good. And he's helped me before all of me now. And, you know, and that's the mindset that allows you to play that game. You cannot play the game. It's amazing to see how the most successful people are taking risks. Especially in today's economy, where so much is about like, innovation and pivoting. It wasn't that way. Like the older crowd has a harder to have a harder time with this concept. It wasn't always that way years ago. It used to be more about building generational businesses because you just, you had time to figure stuff out. That's not the game we play anymore. Every day there's another, the world changes again. Like it's all about moving in. And, and, and this is also a concept that gets businesses to become stagnant. They start growing their business because of this kind of mindset. But as they get bigger, Now they get scared because now they have more to lose. It's like when I'm a small guy, it doesn't make a difference if I take big risks because what's going to happen anyway. But as I get bigger, I'm too scared to pivot. Now there's truth to that, right? Big businesses shouldn't be taking the same risks that a guy went, right? Like don't do something completely crazy that might bring you to your end because maybe it'll work because you have too much to lose. But You still got to be within the mindset of I'm playing a game, you guys still be playing the game of no, it's not about figuring everything out. It's about pivoting and playing. If you don't play that game, then you're going to lose. So I hope I'm clear here because there are multiple concepts. Number one is we, if we're going to try to create full clarity, if that's our goal, we will never succeed. There is no such thing as full clarity and whatever clarity you're trying to get to. you put yourself in a box that you're only able to work when you have that level of clarity. If you want to grow as a business, you got to be able to stay in the space of I want to learn to play in gray areas. Not I want to learn to play when everything is clear. That's not the mindset of an entrepreneur in today's society. You have that kind of mindset, you're going to screw yourself over because you're never going to be able to work. Number two is, it's not even the way that it works. There isn't that level of clarity. So you're simply just fooling yourself and putting on blinders to all the risks that are there. People hate to hear this. The people who are like busy like analytics all day, they hate this. They hate this. But I think the biggest proof of this is the stock market. Like stock pickers suck. Like the numbers, the percentage of stock pickers that do well is so low. So low and yet everyone keeps on trying to get why they so sure of themselves. Well, I'm gonna like figure this out, right? And it's like, no, you're not. That's not how it works because it's not all about analytics, but you're still so sure that you're just working analytics, analytics. And now you don't see all the rest of this stuff that come in and blindsides you and messes you over. So it's a certain humbleness, a certain humility to be like, I don't know all the answers, but at the same time, that's okay, because I don't need to, all I need to be able to do is play the game. Business has got to be about a game that you're playing. That means you're able to come in, play the game without that clarity, without that assuredness. And you'll see that when you get back in that zone, it starts flowing again. Ride a bike, try to keep yourself, yeah sorry. I was going to say, so it's basically like you're just like, you know the principles and the things that work. And you just base your decisions off of what you know and what you think is best for you at the time. Like you can't really know what's going to happen in the future. There's always things that could come out as a mistake. There's things that could come out as, you know, you probably should have lost money and you made X amount of money. Like it's just you, if you stick with your principles and you stick with the game, like you will be successful in the long run. Exactly. And I think that. This is with the danger of like looking at individual situations and trying to base our businesses off of them. It's like you look at some guy and he made some, it's like, we're giving way too much credit to success and way too much credit to failure. Way too much. Yeah. The guy did a good business deal and it worked, but like, there's a significant chance that it just was like, he just got lucky and he did something stupid. It doesn't mean it was smart. And then we see a guy who failed. He could have done everything right. And we're like, Oh my gosh, he's, he's thinks like, no, he doesn't need to do a great job. Just they were variables out of control. We, we take too much of granted. So it's because we're constantly playing the game. It's literally like the stock market. You can invest in a vest invest in, and you will invest in a lot of bad stuff and bad times and you'd be like, Oh, I shouldn't have done that. No, but over time we expect the stock market to rise. And over time we expect you to get exponential growth. That's how it works in business. You got to be able to play the game continuously. can't get out of the game. But you can't if you're just waiting for the stock market to be at its best time. Then you're just the stock picker. And that doesn't work. Growth happens because you're playing the game. Growth happens because you're playing the game to the best of your ability and you're ready to continuously pivot. You got to get in the game, play the game. And that's when you see success. Thank you for listening. Thank you, Amy. Yeah, what's that? I was just going to say before we turn off, I actually just saw a post on LinkedIn from someone. He was asking about like he was looking to buy a business. I don't know if you know those like candy coated almonds? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was like the numbers look great but like I can't buy something that like I just don't like. I think they taste disgusting and like I don't want to buy them. And then someone commented and was like. You know, that's what Shaq said when he didn't invest in Starbucks and like look where that got him. He missed out investing in Starbucks. And I said, I think if you get Shaq's track record of investments, you'll be happy whether you invested in Starbucks or not. Like he decided not to based on what he thought was right at the time. And he's had a ton of investments that worked out for him. And he's had a bunch that didn't work out for him, but he sticked. Obviously sticks to his principles and, and that's what works. He's, he's playing the game. Like you said, yeah. Right. And, and, and I think regardless of, you know, the right decision, when it comes to purchasing that specific company, right. And how much weight you should give to the fact that you think it stinks and how much weight you should give to the idea that, that the market seems to like it, right? Cause that's a separate conversation. You can argue both sides of that, but I think your main point here, which is so essential, is that you can't look at any individual situation and say, Oh, because he didn't do this, that shows that all this is bad. It's about the principles. It's about being able to play the game based on your principles. It's about being able to say, okay, this is a good, this is bad. Keep on going, move next. And I've said this so many times on the show and I'll say it again. I love what, um, what I'm him him. One of the biggest investors ever. So you know, and he was like, he was like, every time people tell me is a once in a lifetime opportunity. He's buffets like, I think to myself, there's a bunch of other ones that are also once in a lifetime opportunities. Don't get locked in on any specific situation. Don't get thrown off too much by anything. Stay the game, play the game. pivot when necessary and go rocket. That's what's necessary. So I'm so glad to have Avion again over here. He has a phenomenal business icebreakers, a business development, which is focused on taking companies that want to break out into the sales market and they need to clarify their goals, create a sales team. He takes care of the whole thing. He's taking companies that are like, we got a great product. They'll work on. on clarifying what exactly their sales points is all the way up to getting people in trained all off location at a much lower price to be able to break their business out into levels that they never thought possible. Reach out to him, Abraham on LinkedIn at icebreakers. What's it called again? Business Development Online and I'm Yusra Wohl. As you know, you can reach me at Yusra Wohl.com. Looking forward to our next episode. Until then, take care.