Brendan Kane argues that small-thinkers ask risk-focused questions that shrink their ambition. Reframe to "What if this actually worked?" instead. Constantly monitoring for mistakes kills curiosity and locks you into thinking too small.
Here's how you know you're thinking too small. And this goes back to an observation from the philosopher Seneca who once wrote, "It's not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It's because we do not dare that things are difficult." Basically what he means is that many limits we face in life are not real limits. They are limits that we place on ourselves even without noticing. Small thinkers usually begin by asking the wrong question. Instead of asking what might be possible, they immediately start calculating the risks. The difficulty, the chances of failure. And the moment someone begins thinking that way, their ideas start to shrink because the size of our ambition is usually determined by the questions we ask at the start. The moment someone asks, "What if this actually worked?" the entire situation changes. Suddenly possibilities appear that most people never even consider because curiosity is the foundation of every great idea. And if you're constantly watching for your mistakes, you're killing your curiosity. If you judge your ideas by predicting what might go wrong, you're thinking too small.
