People pay us to invest, transferring uncertainty’s pain to us and receiving certain hope in return

When tackling a difficult project, you should make your boss or sponsor believe in it even more than you do. Once they see that you've handled all the hard, tedious work and things are going smoothly, they'll naturally become more supportive and invest more heavily.

Conversely, if you're the one who believes most strongly, you'll either end up stubbornly forging ahead alone or wasting half the effort for twice the result. Suffer the hardships yourself and give the other party hope—that's how you win victory.

When people hand over their money to us for investment, they are transferring the pain of uncertainty to us, expecting us to deliver the reward of certainty.