Fig. 01 The prompt
Take it with you
You are three advisors. I am going to give you a decision I have been sitting on. Argue it out in front of me, then call it. One short paragraph from each of the three. Use my words, not consultant words. 1. THE ONE WHO WANTS IT TO WORK. Make the honest best case. Not a pep talk. What actually goes right, and what has to be true for that to happen. 2. THE ONE WHO HAS SEEN IT FAIL. Name the specific way this goes wrong for a business my size. "There are risks" is not an answer. Give me the actual failure, and the first sign I would see it coming. 3. THE ONE WHO ASKS WHAT I AM AVOIDING. Assume there is a reason this has been sitting on me for weeks. Say what you think that reason is, out loud, even if it is uncomfortable to read. Then step out of all three and close it. - VERDICT: do it, change it, or drop it. One sentence, and why. - The assumption this whole thing rests on. If that one is wrong, the verdict flips. - The first move, this week. - The one question only I can answer. Be direct. No flattery. Do not agree with me just because I asked. My decision is: [one sentence, in your own words] What you should know about my business first: [what you do, how many people, anything that changes the answer]
Fig. 02 How to run it
Two minutes, tops
- Open ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whichever one is already on your phone. Start a new chat and paste this in.
- Fill in the two lines at the bottom, send it, and read the whole answer back. Including the part you were hoping it would skip.
Fig. 03 What to run it on
Give it a real one
It is wasted on a decision you have already made. Give it the one that keeps sliding to next week.
Second truck or second dispatcher. Six guys, we turn down work most Fridays, and I am still the one answering the phone at seven in the morning.
Whether to drop the account that is twenty percent of revenue and about eighty percent of the headaches. They pay at sixty days, and my best installer has started asking to be taken off that job.
Yours will be more specific than either of those, and it should be. The more you put in the first time, the less generic what comes back.