A leap of faith for me was about putting my trust in one person about the best course of action regarding my health and, in retrospect, I should probably have sought a second opinion - but I didn’t.
A common characteristic of successful entrepreneurs is a deeply held belief that they will achieve their business goal, despite widely reported statistics that most start-ups (90%) fail. An entrepreneur’s faith in their own ability, their team and/or the compelling nature of their idea seems to propel them forward. That faith imbues a subtle trust and a feeling of confidence that they can be successful, so they go ahead.
You could say I made a leap of faith by joining Wyser but I considered many factors before I made my decision. After going through them all I realised that I wanted this challenge; it was the right time in my life and I trusted the team I was joining, many of whom I had with worked in the past. I considered all the risks and either mitigated them or accepted them, it certainly didn’t feel like a leap of faith.
I used to be a runner. I ran 55km a week and I loved it until I got a chronic injury. I was told by my doctor that I needed an operation on my foot that would permanently fuse two bones together. I like my doctor; she is excellent at what she does and I trust her; however, looking back, I could question the basis of that trust. Did I really know her? The cynic in me says people, even experts, can overestimate their abilities. I made the decision, a leap of faith, to have the operation and fortunately my doctor was right, the operation went well and I was pain-free.
Whenever I think about that decision, I always wonder why I didn’t get a second opinion when I'm not the sort of person who just takes someone’s word for it - I need things to be validated or proved in advance.
In business, I do not take leaps of faith. Something that I love doing, that mitigates inherent decision-making risks, is the setting up and running of Model Offices for clients.
I like a Model Office because it knits together the people, process, and technology components of a newly proposed solution. It iteratively tests that solution against real scenarios within a simulated work environment to evaluate its benefits and effectiveness. A Model Office engages the key people involved in the solution early in the development process, allowing for feedback as the solution is being developed.
The Model Office is a great way to obtain buy-in from all stakeholders, as it allows you to demonstrate the benefits of the solution early in the development process.
Our clients are making full use of this capability which means they can be confident that nothing is accepted into their live environment that hasn’t already been established in a ‘safe’ environment. This is a big win for our clients and a happy outcome for me as I know I don’t like taking leaps of faith - especially in business.
At Wyser our services include Digital Transformation, Customer Journey Optimisation, AI and Automation, across a wide range of sectors. To find out more about our approach, then why not get in touch today?