A leader who always knows what to say is often the most dangerous person in the room. Nagarjuna, the 2nd-century Buddhist philosopher, argued that clinging to fixed views — even correct ones — is itself a form of suffering, because it blinds you to the way situations are always shifting beneath your feet. What he called śūnyatā — the radical openness of all things to being otherwise — wasn't a mystical claim about emptiness. It was a practical epistemology: the world resists your certainty, and the leader who mistakes their mental model for reality will eventually crash into the gap. Real confidence, then, isn't the absence of doubt. It's the capacity to act decisively while holding your own conclusions loosely — to move without being married to the outcome of the move. Today, before your most important conversation or decision, try holding your position for a moment as if it were a hypothesis rather than a verdict.

What is a position you're currently defending that you'd secretly be relieved to have challenged?

Drawing from Madhyamaka Buddhist Philosophy — Nagarjuna (Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, ~2nd century CE)