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You’re Decision Making is SO SLOW and SO WRONG: How To Move Fast, Outpace Your Competition, Lessons from a Jeff Bezos Look-a-Like eating Risotto at The Camberwell Arms

You’re Decision Making is SO SLOW and SO WRONG: How To Move Fast, Outpace Your Competition, Lessons from a Jeff Bezos Look-a-Like eating Risotto at The Camberwell Arms

Dan Pope
September 06, 2024

I was in Hell when I found Heaven. I twisted and pushed and knocked on the front door of Heaven.

Knocked.
Knocked.
Knocked.
Nada.

It wasn’t a push.
It was a pull.
It was a one way door.

Leaving Hell.
Entering Heaven.

High white angelic pearly white ceilings. Capacious dining room punctuated with tables capriciously changing with ravenous rabbles. Staff:: warm and cool. Sticky Toffee Pudding Charm. Warm Souls ooooooooooooooooooooze an achingly, effortlessly cool charm. Creamy Dreamy. All look like they’ve come from an Arctic Monkey’s gig. Arctic cool. Monkey Mischievous.

I was an anxious swamp of hangover. Head a scrambling like egg:: screaming black egg yolk swirling around my skull. Hell.

In this little pocket of YUM, you’re called “Honey” and “Darling”. The staff are Darling Honeys. Heaven.

Just.
So.
God.
Damn.
Right.

Bohemian-Darling-Honey-Betty had gorgeous melting chocolate pudding eyes

“Table for two corpulent bastards please?” fumbled out my mouth like black ash.

“Of cooourse my darlings…howa ya day going?!… we’ll be righhhhhht with you in a sec honey”
“Sooo…. we’ve gotta table at the counter darlings in front of the kitchen darling”
“Gimme a couple of a seconds…will bring some water over” ’

We.
Yes.
Us.

Brace of blokes.
Grab brace of bar stalls.
Order brace of brutally cold Estrella’s.
Braced ourselves for a tornado of unadulterated gluttony.

Bohemian-Darling-Honey-Betty scurried off.

Arctic-Monkey’s-Andy-Darling-Honey swooned in…. Marching Band of Charm.

“howwwa yaa doing”
“Here’s your bread and pints, boyyyysss”.

Estrella washed away Hangover of Hell.
Enter: Bread of Heaven.

Door-step thick. Baby-bottom soft. Lots of little scraggly rivers of olive oil running through the dough - BITE IN. - te-xture - - - tex- ture - - tex- tu- re - It’s Yummy. It’s Weird. It’s Dough. Weirdo

The Camberwell Arms is my kinda pub.

Soul foiled in knifes and forks clitter-clatter and boiling chitter-chatter

“Yooooo! here’s two more of next dishes gents - Scotch Bonnet and Pigs fat is BANGIN' ’”

Scotch Bonnet and Pigs Fat on Toast. Fuck me, boisheee. Where do I start?!

Cuttlefish Risotto:: a black-blotchy and heinously delicious swamp of yum. The colour of a bats blood the flavour of angels.

Mike Davies, Owner and Operator of The Camberwell Arms is an ABSOLUTE G

Our conversation helped me MASSIVELY with Decision Making.

In 2019, Mike had a mental breakdown. But, fortunately, rebuilt his life. Day by day. Brick by Brick.

One of the biggest lessons Mike took from his mental breakdown was just how much time we spend worrying about decision making in business.

Mike spent so much time worrying and worrying and worrying.
I spend too much time worrying and worrying and worrying.

Challenger Brands have to MOVE FAST and MAKE DECISIONS FAST.

Worrying is a weight on the ankles, slowing you down, letting your competition overtake you.

How much of our time do we spend ruminating?
Our minds a Worrying-What If? Washing Machine
Our brains a putrid Pe:::r::c:::🅾️:la:::::tin::::g pinball machine.

So many founders dilly-dally
Fanny around n’ fanny about. F*ck about. F&ck around.

Ponder, Pontificate, Plot. Lose The Plot.

Minds. back. fourth. you spin me right round. baby. right round.
round.
round.round.round.

Jeff Besoz has a great frame for quick decision making.
FUN-BELIEVABLE JEFF talks about Amazon being the most-effective decision making organisation in the world.

Two way door vs. One way door decisions

Two way door decisions:

If it's a two way door decision, you pick a door, you walk out, you spend a little time there, it turns out to be the wrong decision. You can come back in and pick another door.

Make these decisions quickly, because it's reversible.

One way door decisions:

Some decisions are so consequential and so important and so hard to reverse that they really are one way door decisions.

You go in that door, you're not coming back. And those decisions have to be made very deliberately, very carefully.

Take more time, explore alternatives, and have discussions. Because these decisions could have costly repercussions.

The most common problem with organisations is that they treat two way door like it is one way door decisions and the organisation moves extremely slowly.

That decision you’re worrying about is keeping you in Hell.

Thinking Two Way Door decisions are One Way Door Decisions is a kind of Hell.

It’s keeping you in the Hell of moving slow, panicking.

You think it's a One Way Door Decision.
Escape Hell: Realise it’s a Two Way Door Decision.

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Pretty-pease may you do me a huge favour, mate. This newsletter took me +18 hours to compile + write. It’ll take you literally 10 seconds to forward it on to a friend. Please may you ping it on to someone? We grow one recco at a time. Hugely grateful for you support xx

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