Don't Begin With the End in Mind

The movie My Cousin Vinny is an odd place for a leadership lesson, but there is a powerful message hidden between all of the laughs.

Vincent Gambini, a first-time personal injury lawyer from Brooklyn, is sent to rural Alabama to defend his cousin, who has been falsely accused of murder. The presiding Judge Chamberlain Haller is a serious man and has strong doubts about Gambini’s qualifications. Judge Haller doesn’t like his looks, his dress, his accent or the fact he never cross-examines any witnesses — which makes him increasingly skeptical of his defense. From all appearances, the case seems to be open and closed, and Judge Haller seems content to get this New Yorker out of his courtroom.

The first rule of being a judge, though, is to never begin with the end in mind and to remain undecided until all of the evidence is presented. Otherwise, he/she will only hear what supports their initial conclusion. Judge Haller wanted to hear why these two “youths” were guilty, and he was determined to move the case along. It wasn’t until Gambini’s girlfriend, Mona Lisa Vito, an expert in cars, addressed the court that Judge Haller was swayed.

“End-in-mind” thinking causes us to make decisions based on what we think the final product should look like, rather than considering what else might arise along the way. It’s critical to start with small-scale decisions, instead of trying to master an entire project at once. We must take into account each of the necessary steps and avoid jumping to rash conclusions, particularly when there are several unknown variables. We must also ignore any internal signals we feel when confronted with a looming decision.

One way to do this is to write down our initial feelings to serve as a reminder to not become blinded — then work hard to process data that do not support what we wrote down. When we acknowledge on paper what our gut tells us, we keep score of our real instincts, thus allowing ourselves to understand how our gut may hinder us.

From now on, let’s write down our initial instincts, then work hard to prove these wrong.

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Recently, Bloomberg asked investment experts where they’d personally invest right now. Their results?

They overwhelmingly recommended alternatives like contemporary art.

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• Contemporary art prices have outperformed S&P 500 returns by 174% (1995-2020).

• Wealthy collectors allocate 10–30% of their portfolios to art.

• Lowest correlation to public equities of any major asset class, according to Citi.

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