10 Comments
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Victoria's avatar

Love how you reframed ‘negativity’ as protection. It’s about care, not cynicism!

I write about surviving the corporate jungle using animal archetype to break down complex human behaviors and situations. If this resonates, please connect and lets support each other.

Here is my latest post:

https://corporatejungle.substack.com/p/ambition-vs-survival-mode-slow-down

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Martin 🏹's avatar

if optimism is armor, realism is radar. you need both in the jungle.

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Kevin Ertell's avatar

Spot on. I use premortems for the same reason. I find they give people explicit permission to point out the problems before they happen. It shifts the conversation from defending ideas to strengthening them. When you make it safe to call out risks early, you trade surface alignment for real alignment. It’s one of the simplest ways to turn potential landmines into learning moments and ultimately make execution smoother and faster.

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Colby Black's avatar

Not to be the guy that quotes his own About Me Section, but:

"I lead the league in all defensive stats.

I've saved more teams from bad ideas than I can count—so the good ones can actually shine."

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Project Sunstone's avatar

Great article. Many don’t appreciate critical, but constructive feedback.

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Martin 🏹's avatar

exactly. everyone loves feedback until it stops being flattering.

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Alex McCann's avatar

Appreciate the mention!!

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Martin 🏹's avatar

you're welcome. It was a great and harrowingly honest post. Did you spend much time working on it?

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Paul O'Brien's avatar

When 90% or more fail, the trick isn't chasing what works, it's being fixated on avoiding what doesn't.

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Martin 🏹's avatar

yes it might be better move is to catalogue what killed the last ten startups you admired rather focussing on the ones that succeeded.

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