The Fine Line Between Caution and Confidence

A former boss once told me: "It's good to be a little paranoid."

3 years into running my own firm, I finally understand what he meant.

When you're on your own, you're the final checkpoint. Every case you submit, every document you sign off on - the responsibility sits entirely with you. There's a freedom in that, but it also requires a different kind of vigilance.

In my first year, that reality was hard to handle.

I'd feel nervous about a case and want to review it over and over again. Should I check this one more time? What if I missed something? What if there's an obvious error I'm not seeing? That voice in the back of my head was constant.

But here's the thing: you don't have time to review everything eight times. If you did that with every case, you'd never get anything done. You have to be able to do your work and move forward.

So I've learned to channel that paranoia into something useful instead of letting it paralyze me.

When I'm doing my final checklist before filing a case, I assume something is wrong. I go through looking for it. That's actually the best way to catch the kind of small mistake that could be a fatal flaw, like a missing signature page or an incorrect date.

But once the checklist is done, I file it. And I try not to worry about what's going to happen with the case after that.

I remind myself: I've filed a lot of cases now on my own. I've gotten a lot of cases approved. I have the background and experience to know what I'm doing. With that experience, I can trust my judgment and the systems I've built.

That confidence didn't come overnight. It came from doing the work, case after case, approval after approval.

A little paranoia keeps you sharp and catches errors. Too much paranoia will drown you and slow everything down.

The goal is finding the spot in between where you're careful but not stuck.