It’s more apparent than ever; people hate uncertainty.

My son was wafting at the love bugs that breed this time of year. He intended to smash them.

“Be gentle, dude, there’s no reason to kill them,” I remarked. He looked up at me with the childlike glare and said: “I hate them.”

“Ahh, come on, Noah, hate is a strong word for such a small bug. How about they’re annoying?”

He muttered hate a few more times but soon forgot about the bugs for some dirt. 

You may not hate love bugs like my son, but if you’re like most, you hate uncertainty. 

“Just as the embrace of uncertainty leads to progress, progress itself generates uncertainty, as one discovery calls into question the other.” -Varol, Ozan. Think Like a Rocket Scientist

When you’re uncertain, ask yourself, what’s the worst-case scenario? How likely is it to occur, based on what I know today?

When you’re uncertain, you fixate on the worst-case scenario while not giving it any deep thought. 

You dwell on the surface level of uncertainty.

When you’re not sure what to be alarmed about, everything becomes alarming. You become susceptible to misinformation. 

You become coerced into the plague of letting your emotions control your actions.

By asking yourself these questions, you get real on what the real problem is, not all the other noise that surrounds it. 

As you ask yourself these questions, you need to close the loop by asking yourself, what’s the best that can happen?

According to Ozan Varol, in his book “Think Like A Rocket Scientist,”

”Unless you consider the best-case scenario along with the worst, your brain will steer you toward the seemingly safest path—inaction. But as a Chinese proverb goes, many a false step was made by standing still. You’re more likely to take that first step into the unknown when there’s the proverbial pot of gold awaiting at the end.”

Don’t let uncertainty freeze you into inaction, and conversely, don’t let it guide you to the wrong problem. 

Build Redundancies Into What You Do

Start thinking about contingencies you can put in place today, that will act as a safety net tomorrow. 

Right now, we’re seeing a ravishing effect on people and companies who didn’t prepare financially.

With every dollar of net profit they generate, they could have transferred a percent of those earning into a savings account for future cash flow needs. 

Larger companies have access to more capital, which serves as their financial redundancy. 

Some other examples are, you don’t want more than 20% of your sales, coming from a single client, or 80% of your inventory, coming from a single supplier.

If these occur in your business, what are the redundancies you can put in place to mitigate the uncertainty risk if you lost a key client or supplier? 

Don’t leave this to your professional life; it works in your personal life as well. 

The Bigger The Irreversible Risk, The Greater Your Margins Of Safety

One of my business principles is, I find unique ways to reduce my downside. I love looking at problems and coming at them with a fresh perspective. 

If the probability of failure is high, or costly, building in margins of safety is an important thought exercise.

What can you do to pad the risk? 

Once you begin to think about your margins of safety, you’ll get more clear on what you’re uncertain about. 

What’s uncertain and planned for will become closer to being certain. 

Uncertainty is the spice of life. Life is dull and lifeless without it. 

Embrace uncertainty, prepare for it and use it to your advantage.