Why I Always Choose the Hard Way by Philip Cutler

Like everyone, my life has been filled with good and bad decisions. Particularly pronounced as the CEO of a business, how
and what you decide is key, if not essential, to your and your company’s survival.

When you are a child, you are always conditioned not to choose the easy way out. Promised that taking the easy way may be
a short-term Band-Aid, but in the long run it will catch up to you. There is no truth to that. Whoever is telling you that is saying it
because you taking the easy way out makes THEIR life more difficult.

Think of a child who breaks a rule. Let’s say that rule was cheating on a test. When confronted he can either own up to
cheating (harder), or he can deny it (easy). If he owns up to it, he is immediately punished. If he denies it the burden of proof falls onto
the teacher.

If choosing the easy way out doesn’t harm you, what is wrong with it? The answer is nothing. In fact, the easy way out is
probably the better decision to make, that is why most people choose that route. If you are someone who takes the easy way out, thank
you.

Those who know me know I seek risk and opportunity. If I am such a driven opportunist, why would I ever consider making my
life harder than it need be? Why would I choose the hard way out? Because that is what it takes to SUCCEED.

Here are the 4 reasons why I choose the HARD way.

Take the shortest path & tackle the running back (or whatever your target is)
This is a simple sports analogy but it makes things pretty clear. In football, every time an offensive lineman steps up field to put
a block on a linebacker, he is giving two options, battle me for this field position or get blocked the way I want you to. It sounds obvious,
but for years I watched football players bigger, stronger and faster than I am get blocked. That split second decision to fight past the
lineman will bring you right into the running back’s path. The same is true in life. When you face an obstacle head-on and battle past it,
you will almost always be led directly to your goal.

The shortest path from one object to another is a straight line. It is also often the most difficult path. Obstacles want you to
deviate from this path. Don’t. That is how you get sidetracked.

As an extension to this, by choosing to battle the obstacle versus submitting, you are immediately throwing your opposition off,
often that alone is enough to let you prevail.

Set yourself apart from everyone else.

In my world, we are told by peers, mentors, investors, and just about everyone to make quick decisions, fail fast, learn from your
mistakes and move on. The truth is, those mistakes are almost always caused by choosing the easier and most appealing of two
decisions. I can’t agree more with the necessity to make quick, yet well thought out decisions. Because most people are afraid of
challenge and contention, your competition will choose the easy way out. Ultimately choosing the harder route will set you apart from
them. If they don’t those the easy way out and you do, they now have a leg up on you. In the short-term choosing something more
difficult it may put you in a more difficult position, but long term you will always end up better off.

By setting yourself apart you are also making yourself more memorable. This is never a bad thing. We can always work
harder. There is a lot of talk in business about competitive advantage. I’ve given 1000s of pitches to clients, investors, employees, etc.
and I’ve spat out every competitive advantage angle that I could think up. The truth is my competitive advantage is that I will outwork
you.

Simply put, more often than the competition I will choose the harder of two options, the option THEY DIDN’T CHOOSE,
knowing that I can always work harder if that is what it will take to succeed.

To reference one of the greatest baseball players of my generation, Derek Jeter, “there may be people who have more talent
than you, but there is no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.”

No doubt there are people who are smarter than I am, better connected than I am, or maybe even more passionate, but there
is never an excuse for someone to outwork me.
Create doubt from those around you.
Every time I choose the hard route, I create doubt. Those around me question whether I can actually succeed. Nothing
motivates me more than being doubted. If you question my decision you are simply motivating me to succeed even more.

To contextualize this, I have one short story.

Back in high school we used to have to take a bus to hockey each day. One day our coach was running late and a few of the
players on the team decided it would be appropriate to honk the horn of the bus repeatedly. When our coach finally came out, he was
beyond angry. He took the team off the bus and told us no one was going to the game until the guilty party owned up. Silence.
Eventually I admitted to the honking. We boarded the bus and went to the game. I didn’t touch the ice the entire first period. We won the
game 4-3.

The next day at school the coach called me into the office with the director of our senior school. They intended to punish me
for my insubordinate behavior. They asked why I would be so disrespectful. I told them I hadn’t been; It wasn’t me who was causing the
disturbance. They didn’t know what to say. I explained that to me it didn’t matter who honked the horn, what mattered was getting to the
game and winning. They were so shocked and impressed with what I had done they decided to make me a captain. The respect gained
opened opportunities the rest of my time in high school.
Next time you are facing a tough decision, choose the harder option, let everyone doubt you, buckle down, and SUCCEED.