17 Comments
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ABDELMAJID KADDOURI's avatar

Dear Carlos salam from Morocco your article come to me in the right time just purchased back 80% of the company foundry of brass that I built 10 years ago and that the other shareholders coming from the banking perception destroyed its value after firing me 2 years ago and managing it, however they asked high value to get out i had 2 choices either spend the next years fighting in courts or Getting the company back to profit I choose the second option with huge discomfort its brining your idea that this comfort maybe the source for me to succeed is really great and insightful thank you for that and by the way for all what you did to Morocco thanks to your trigger today our country is first car making company in Africa hayak allah Majid Kaddouri

Olivier Puybasset's avatar

Thank you Mr Ghosn for sharing these insights of your past experience. As current COO of a French scale-up, your executive management stories reasonnate strongly with what I live every day.

I particularly recognize myself and align with this last statement : Leaders who only move when they are confident are protecting something. Leaders who move when they are 50% sure and fully committed are building something.

Looking forward your next NL.

Regards

Olivier

kaustubhan Srivathsan's avatar

Great inputs and case study. 100% agree. Building something great can never be done within the status quo and safety net, otherwise the existing people and the ecosystem would already have done it, why would they need anybody else to step in. There is a need to be bold, to go right into the discomfort zone, have belief in oneself.

Rachid Berrada's avatar

You are a great leader

Scenarica's avatar

50% was the only honest answer because there was no base rate. The outcome depended entirely on whether you could do something nobody had done before, in conditions nobody had tested. That's not a probability estimate. It's an acknowledgement that the only variable was you, and you hadn't been measured yet.

Marco Dominguez's avatar

Dear Mr. Ghosn,

I have been working at a Japanese merger of two Japanese companies for the last 11 years and decisions are always made under "forced" consensus. However, always on the safe side. When I have proposed uncomfortable solutions, it usually has taken a lot of time and debate for these proposals to be approved. Usually when there is no other option left. However, by that time it is sometimes too late. Comfort, safe, the usual way is what becomes the prominent way of making decisions. And the several years later we ask ourselves why we are in the same place and seeing the same problems again and again. I agree that sometimes the most uncomfortable solutions are evetually the most wewarding.

abdoul k macalou's avatar

You are an inspiration Sir Carlos....

Abdulmohsin's avatar

No risk no fun and no reward

2pints's avatar

The high performers I work with often seek to be in a state of liminality - the uncomfortable phase when one is embracing a challenge or opportunity which requires new knowledge or ways of working. It’s the period when they lean into execution and leave the status quo behind. They implicitly embrace living in liminality, as that is the space of execution over ideas.

Badih Saikali's avatar

Very insightful thoughts, thank you Carlos!

Vikas's avatar

Brilliant insight. Experience.Pearls of wisdom. Thanks for sharing.

Karl's avatar

Thank you for sharing your battle-tested knowledge. It is truly a priceless legacy.

Now, it’s our time to execute!

Wadih Elias's avatar

Well it actually makes sense because this 50% chance of failure fuels the whole process. The other 50% is anyhow guaranteed, so you have to at least double your efforts to make that 50 a 100.

Thanks for sharing and guiding🙏

jjdavidian's avatar

Quelques coquilles dans ce texte très intéressant par ailleurs :

je leur demandais d'être mal à l'aise:

Je cherchais à les mettre mal à l'aise

Je cherchais à bousculer leur zone de confort

le inconfort lié au défi.

?

En effet, les initiés avaient

?

Yellokamila's avatar

You are a marvellous person