Skill vs Luck
In business, just as in life, we can often attribute success to two major things-- skill and luck, but often misinterpret which is which.
At SAGE, we’ve often found that many businesses who think they are relying solely on skill in their security integration are actually relying heavily on luck as well. But how do businesses know if their security is relying on skill or luck, and how should they stack the deck in favor of skill?
Differentiating Skill vs. Luck
In most aspects of a businesses’ security integration, skill and luck appear to go hand in hand, and it is often difficult to tell one from the other.
However, Michael Mauboussin, author of The Success Equation, helps define the terms luck and skill in a way that allows us to see their relevance to the security field. His two definitions could be summarized as follows:
Skill can be defined as the ability to do something effectively by using your own (or someone else’s) knowledge and expertise to complete a task at any given date or time.
Luck then can be defined as something good or bad, happening to an individual or group, that relies upon something or someone else acting in order to complete the task.
(ex. Relying on the vigilance of a bystander, rather than the preparation of a security team, to alert an organization of impending danger.)
We’ll talk in a moment about how you can leverage skill in favor of your security integration, but first, one more thought about luck.
One of the worst things about being lucky is the uncertainty of when your luck will run out or turn bad. It is a dangerous habit to be dependent on luck.
When a company chooses not to secure their business, or perhaps to trust outdated technology or a lack of security deterrents, they are heavily relying on luck, and luck will only work in their favor so many times.
Underprepared-ness is extremely common and understandable in the security industry, as security directors are often busy, distracted, or even under prepared themselves. This leads to a higher dependence on luck, rather than true preparation.
The reason that SAGE Integration exists is to help companies eliminate this dependence on luck. We’ve observed both Michael Mauboussin’s words and also from our time in the field, that companies have zero control over their own luck. That is in fact the nature of luck. But the harder a company works to prepare itself adequately against threats, the more they ensure the safety of their employees, clients, data, etc., in the long run.
Stacking The Deck In Your Favor
At SAGE we rely heavily on a simple saying:
“The harder I work and prepare, the ‘luckier’ I get.”
The essence of our business is that reliance on expertise, preparation, and diligence yields something that looks like luck, but is actually just the byproduct of so much effort.
For example, what we often see in the security field is that companies and organizations that prepare well, are far better protected against physical and digital threats, than those that don’t prepare. When that preparation includes SAGE’s expertise, these companies also gain peripheral benefits– such as:
Access to a team of installer specialists across North America
24/7 service and response support nationwide
Financial success
Happy employees
Gained trust in said industry
SAGE’s Nationwide presence of security integration experts is everyday protecting the people, facilities, and reputation of enterprise companies.We bring security innovations that leverage the very best the integration landscape has to offer, and give it to our clients so that they can go about their lives, work, and responsibilities with unparalleled peace of mind.We call that, stacking the deck in favor of our clients.
So then, as we move from luck over to skill, you may be asking “how does a company know what technologies they need in order to be fully dependent on skill and security?”
Well, SAGE integration is eager to help companies navigate what technologies fit their needs best by providing skilled industry experts.
Why SAGE?
The SAGE Mission is to protect the people, facilities and reputation of enterprise clients by advancing the intelligence and integration of security technology.
At SAGE Integration, we have a lifetime of skill in the industry, offering over 30 years of experience, and expertise, consistently aiming to stack the deck in our clients’ favor. It is our goal to ensure our clients feel safe by providing them with a service that offers today's cutting edge technologies along with exceptional service.
Interested in learning how we can stack the deck in your favor? Click here to contact us today to set up a time to talk with one of our experts.