Physiologists speak of a “reflex arc,” a neuromuscular route from stimulus to response that bypasses all the higher thought centers of the brain. Some reflexes are lifesaving, but they are always reactive, and if mere reaction is allowed to drive a business, it will, sooner or later, drive it into the ditch.

There is a lot to be said for cultivating a general basis for action. But the reflective pressure to do something – anything – is, like all nonstrategic actions, liable to be futile at best and more immediately destructive at worst. This does not mean that the correct response either to an opportunity or a problem is to pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep. What it does mean is that it is almost always better not merely to just stand there, but to sit down and take time to understand the current situation, the business involved in that situation, and the broader business, political, market, technological, and other relevant contexts of the current situation.

So, next time your impulse is to do something, anything – stop and think for a moment; It may very well be the best few minutes you have ever spent.
-Excepts from Panic to Profit, Bill Canady

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
-Albert Einstein

“Never assume the obvious is true.”
-William Safire

“Every problem has a solution; you just have to be creative enough to find it.”
-Travis Kalanick

“Confusion is better than stupid conclusions. In confusion, there is still a possibility. In stupid conclusion, there is no possibility.”
-Jaggi Vasudev

“A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”
-Charles Kettering