Back in 2012, when I was all of 28, I started buybazaar.com — an online supermarket based in Chennai, India. It's a bittersweet story of the rise and fall of a company that at one point meant everything in the world to me.
Once I shut down Buybazaar, I spent a month deliberating over the various decisions I had made as a leader. I took a data-driven approach: nearly 89–92% of my decisions were good in retrospect. Not bad, right?
The 6.43% Gap
When I observed top leaders in larger companies, the best were making the right decisions at least 98.43% of the time. That 6.43% gap — much like the difference between the top ten cars in an F1 race — is less than a few seconds, but it separates success from failure.
Specially when you go up the ladder, even a single decision can undo years of good work. I noticed the attention to detail and the various perspectives that effective leaders factor in before taking an “informed” decision.