Author: Jack Klemeyer

There is an interesting dichotomy in business that makes you both successful and keeps you from being successful and that is the act of making assumptions. How can assumptions be useful? We all modify our world in order for it to make sense by doing three basic things, we generalize, we delete and we distort things so we can comprehend, explain and survive. From that comes the phrase made famous by the late Stephen R. Covey, “The map is not the territory.” This phrase was not a Covey original. It was originally coined in the 1930s by Polish-American scientist and philosopher, Alfred Korzybski. For example, in a positive sense, we learn how a key goes in a lock one time and then we know how to do that simple task evermore. Those generalizations work for us in all types of ways: In our sales process, the way we meet people, the way we navigate socially at chamber meetings or other business functions. Another useful way to use assumptions is to, as my friend and author Shelle Rose Charvet says, “guess and test.” That is the appropriate way (strategy) to employ the assumption or the generalization. The test component is critical. If you assume something make sure in some way besides the guess that you are correct. Otherwise, the strategy changes from a positive to a negative. How can assumptions...