Business Runs on Data. But What About Hunches?

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0:35So when your mind won't switch off, you've got something that can help. Erasing thoughts and restless nights won't stand a chance. Find OLLI's sleep solutions for the whole family at OLLI.com. That's O-L-L-Y dot com. All right, so I want to ask you, you're deep in the field of studying what it means to rely on your instincts, to have a gut feel for something. What made you decide even to go into that field? You know, I came from a very technical background. I was an engineer, was designing lots of new products. And what I realized very quickly on was that it was never the best product that won.

1:12There were all these subtle cues and factors and perceptions and even intuitions that dictated whether something went forward or not. A lot of my earliest research was around how do we quantify the unquantifiable? How do we actually start to quantify something like our intuition or our gut feel? So I know that one of the first bits of research you did was with early stage investors. Yeah. So, you know, I found that a lot of times when I was asking investors, well, how did you decide to invest in XYZ company or how did you decide to pass on ABC company? 100 % of the people I spoke with, they would talk about the data, the financials, but they would also talk about their gut feel.

1:56I even had one investor actually, every time I would ask him something, well, how did you make this decision? I just rubbed my belly. I just rubbed my belly. Obviously, don't try that at home. Yes. That kind of illustrates in some way that factor, that we have this gut feel around the decisions that we make.