A lot of it came from being in a hurry.

Everything is an emergency. We need this part. We need to make the PO. I need the shipping address for the hotel. It has to ship today because the crew needs it tomorrow.

When everything is moving that fast, it’s easy to skip one important step: verifying that the information you’re making the decision from is actually right.

I’ve made that mistake plenty of times over the years.

That’s why I no longer accept “I think” as an answer when I need a fact.

If you tell me it’s two inches, put a tape measure on it and send me a picture. If we need a certain part, let’s verify the part before I order it. If something on the site is supposed to be a certain way, show me.

That doesn’t mean I don’t trust the person giving me the information. Good people can be wrong. I can be wrong.

The problem is that if I make the decision based on “he said it was two inches” and it turns out not to be two inches, I’m still the one who made the decision without verifying the facts.

I learned that along the way, and it permanently changed how I operate.

There are plenty of times when we have to move fast. Moving fast doesn’t mean we have to guess.

“I think” isn’t a fact. When the decision matters, I need to know.