128. When your Conviction gets tested
“Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
A good friend called me recently to check on me and also because he felt a need to speak with someone who understands his predicament. Until recently. this friend played a senior management role in a large Indian firm with excellent pay and good title. For years, he had been wanting to go the entrepreneurial way. A few months ago, he finally decided to scratch that itch and started on his own. Before he made the jump, my friend and I had a number of discussions on this matter. We both agreed that conviction will play a big role in getting through the inevitable challenges that an entrepreneur is expected to face. Now he is facing those challenges and his conviction is being tested.
A few weeks ago, I wrote on how conviction can be a reliable guide as one maneuvers adversity. That article touched upon the importance and value of conviction and hence the need to build one. Well, “building” is the easy part of conviction. The really hard part is holding onto it. It is easy to relate in hindsight, how conviction helped us through touch situations. But in real time, as things are happening and you are being tested, holding fort is very, very difficult. This is because you do not yet know if you will be successful eventually or not. This is compounded by the lure of easier alternative paths with much higher chances of success. I can’t imagine that a formula could exist that could help us stick to our conviction.
In this article, I will try to relate my own experience on how I am dealing with my own challenges presently and also how I dealt with challenges in the past. I hope that it helps you — in the minimum, you will know that you are not alone in these intimate confrontations.
“There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake.” Orison Swett Marden
In training for a full marathon, you do not really run a full marathon distance. Most popular training plans do not include any training run longer than a 32K (kilometre) run for a 42.2K distance event. How can one build confidence that they will be able to cover a distance that is over 30% longer than the longest that they ran as part of run up to the event? All those who ran full marathon distance know viscerally that the real challenge in running that distance starts after about 32K. So what gets one through this desperate challenge?
An entrepreneur faces rejection all the time. Rejection comes in all forms — from outright “no” to their ideas to cold “indifference”. Prospective customers and employees, investors and partners — everyone rejects them most of the time. What anchors their conviction to get through all these setbacks?
Only a few of successful investors’ bets come through. Most of their bets fail. The ones that do succeed go through multiple cycles of what seem like failures — a stock goes up 100% or 200% only to fall back by 50% to 80%. Where do they get belief to sustain with their ideas and process?
“The secret of success is conviction and persistence.” — Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Conviction gets tested generally when there are no sure shot or clear answers and when the stakes are high.
Anchors of conviction has long been a topic of great fascination for me — I guess because, like most of my other interest areas, I was not particularly strong with conviction myself. It took me years of experimentation and learning from others to develop some understanding around this topic.
“With the power of conviction, there is no sacrifice.” — Pat Benatar
Here are some of the common qualities that I have seen most successful runners, entrepreneurs, investors and leaders possess that I believe helps them with maintaining their conviction.
Knowledge — Knowledge of yourself (self-awareness) and subject matter knowledge of your field could very well be your primary anchors of your conviction.
Purpose — Purpose, in terms of how that endeavour will end up changing your near and dear ones and/or you, can pull you forward.
History — Intimate familiarity with success of past similar attempts by people before you, can blunt the edge out of your despondency.
Mentor/Coach — A trusted mentor or a coach can play an outsized role in helping one maintain his/her focus when things get difficult. The relationship here need not be formal. Partner, friend, senior — you have to be able to trust that person’s integrity and competence.
Support Groups — An appropriate support group (e.g., local running club) can provide an excellent backstop to your motivation and belief.
Optimism — It is hard to stick to anything difficult without an optimistic outlook — a belief that by doing what it takes, it is fair to expect the results.
Process — A methodical approach that helps you analyze setbacks and incorporate feedback makes the effort more objective. This can help take some emotional load off you. Also, this approach, after a few cycles, becomes “experience”, a potent factor for prescience.
Probabilistic thinking — Knowing that success is never guaranteed — all you can do is only increase the chances of success. This kind of probabilistic thinking helps to maintain the right priorities.
Thinking in bets (do read the book by this name by Annie Duke) — Understanding if the setback is a result of uncontrollable or controllable factors can help feed back into improving your thinking.
Bottomline
“Belief is knowing what you believe. Conviction is knowing why you believe it.” — Josh McDowell
Conviction does not eliminate obstacles on your path. It helps you get through tough situations. It backstops your morale and makes you more purposeful. It stokes the fire that fuels your progress. However, superficial conviction crumbles in the face of trouble. It generally feels all good and dandy that your conviction will save your day until the day arrives. The anchors of your conviction are what will hold you through your tough phases. These anchors can be internal like optimism and probabilistic thinking and external like right mentors or coaches. The key is to lay down the right anchors as your mind gets befuddled in the throes of challenges.
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Thanks for taking time to read this. In this newsletter, I share my learnings that could help you improve your decisions and make meaningful progress on your goals. I try to share stuff that I have personally experienced or experimented with. If you find this newsletter worthwhile and if you do not mind it, please do consider sharing it with others.
A bit on my background
I help people make better decisions.
I coach people on “Making Better Decisions”, “Financial Intuition” and “Building Great Careers”. I’m open to run sessions on these topics in institutions — this will help me create larger impact.
I’m also an Investment Advisor (RIA) registered with the Securities and the Exchange Board of India (SEBI). As an RIA, I analyze and prepare financial plans to help people achieve their financial goals.
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