“Thinking is work. In the early stages of a man’s career it is very hard work. When a difficult decision or problem arises, how easy it is, after looking at it superficially, to give up thinking about it. It is easy to put it from one’s mind. It is easy to decide that it is insoluble, or that something will turn up to help us.
Sloppy and inconclusive thinking becomes a habit. The more one does it the more one is unfitted to think a problem through to a proper conclusion.
The above passage is from the book – by Canadian-born British entrepreneur, Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet – After I Was Sixty. More advice from Thomson follows.
“If I have any advice to pass on, as a successful man, it is this:
If one wants to be successful, one must think; one must think until it hurts. One must worry a problem in one’s mind until it seems there cannot be another aspect of it that hasn’t been considered. Believe me, that is hard work and, from my close observation, I can say that there are few people indeed who are prepared to perform this arduous and tiring work.”
On first reading Thomson’s words I wasn’t too keen to accept them (thinking until it hurts doesn’t sound that good). However, on further reflection, particularly on complex matters I know I need to do more disciplined thinking.
