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You need to be uncomfortable and apprehensive: True strategy is about placing bets and making hard choices. The objective is not to eliminate risk but to increase the odds of success.
Roger Martin
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Success involves taking risks and making difficult decisions, not avoiding discomfort.

This quote emphasizes that true strategic thinking requires embracing discomfort and uncertainty. It suggests that rather than eliminating risks altogether, effective decision-making is about increasing the likelihood of achieving success through calculated choices and taking necessary risks.

Themes

StrategyRiskSuccessDecisionsDiscomfort

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can inspire business leaders during strategic planning meetings.

More from Roger Martin

The ability to face constructively the tension of opposing ideas and instead of choosing one at the expense of the other, generate a creative resolution of the tension in the form of a new idea that contains elements of the opposing ideas but is superior to each.
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