How many times have you been advised to “Trust your gut”? I was reading today that Scott Brown, the newly minted Senator from Massachusetts, told the graduating class at Nichols College that “…when you set a goal and everyone tells you that it cannot be done, if your gut tells you otherwise, then go with your gut.” Sure, that’s easy for Senator Brown to say: he defied those who told him he, a Republican, could never win the Senate seat vacated by the late, iconic Ted Kennedy.
But what about those who have trusted their instincts, and made the wrong decision, with sometimes disastrous results? These folks aren’t always given a stage to tell others to not trust their gut! There is something more to just trusting your gut. Sometimes those that are telling you it can’t be done are right! How do you know when your instincts are correct and when they are not? I will resist delving into how different personality types approach decision-making, exhibiting differing talents and challenges as they proceed. For now, let me say that I think there is a semantics problem here.
What some may call their “instinct” is really a highly developed sense of reality developed from years of experience and study. Decisions that emanate from experience may come so easily to some that even they are unaware of all that lies behind their successful choices. A talent is something that comes easily to someone, and can be so effortless that such people are puzzled by the envy of others: doesn’t everyone do it this way? Scott Brown has political talent that comes from years of experience: as a lawyer, as a town selectman, in the Massachusetts legislature, in the JAG Corp of the Massachusetts National Guard.
It was a disservice to those young minds in the audience at Nichols College for Scott Brown to tell them to simply trust their gut. At an age when they desperately need the guidance of a mentor, Mr. Brown tells them to ignore the naysayers if their gut tells them otherwise. Malcolm Gladwell in Blink, and more recently in his January 18, 2010 article in The New Yorker “How Entrepreneurs Really Succeed”, talks about myth of the successful risk taker. What underlies real-world success is hard work, the relentless search for facts, and the constantly sought advice of wise counsel.
