The doctor in the operating room cannot delay, they must make their decisions quickly, they must act on them and have the courage to face the life-and-death results of the performance. The fighter, the trader, the performer, the CEO at a company in turnaround—every leader is in the same bind. There is a savagery to these professions, where consequences hang in the balance. A strike at the jugular is needed, people must be laid off, checks must be written. There is something awful about this savagery—but no one gains, least of all the vulnerable people at stake, by tarrying or timidity.
