The Right Call

**Author:** Sally Jenkins **Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:**

- Why the best decision-makers embrace uncertainty instead of fearing it - How physical conditioning sharpens mental performance and judgment - The role of deliberate practice in building decision-making mastery - Why discipline, candor, and culture form the foundation of reliable performance - How to reframe failure as a catalyst for growth - Practical frameworks for making better decisions under pressure

**Who This Book Is For:**

Anyone who makes decisions that matter. Coaches and athletes. Executives and entrepreneurs. Parents and teachers. People who want to think more clearly when the stakes are high and the information is incomplete.

Every day, people face moments when a decision must be made and the outcome is uncertain. A coach decides whether to go for it on fourth down. A surgeon chooses between two procedures. A parent weighs a difficult conversation with a teenager. A business leader commits resources to an unproven idea. These moments share a common thread. The person making the call does not have perfect information. The future is unknowable. And yet, a decision must be made. Most people respond to this reality by seeking certainty. They gather more data. They delay. They look for someone else to blame if things go wrong. They wait for conditions to feel safe before acting. The problem is that conditions never feel safe. The moment of decision always arrives before the outcome is known. Waiting for certainty is not caution. It is a decision to let circumstances decide for you. Sally Jenkins has spent decades observing people who make high-stakes decisions for a living. She has watched coaches call plays with championships on the line. She has interviewed athletes who performed under unimaginable pressure. She has studied the methods of leaders who consistently made sound judgments when everything was on the line. What she discovered is that great decision-makers share a surprising trait. They are not people who have eliminated uncertainty. They are people who have learned to function effectively within it. The best decision-makers understand that the "right call" is not a magical insight that arrives fully formed. It is a composite of preparation, experience, intuition, and the willingness to act when the moment demands action. They know that perfect information is a fantasy. They make peace with the reality that every important decision involves risk. This book is about how they do it. The title comes from a simple observation about the nature of consequential decisions. When you make a call that matters, some people will disagree. Some will criticize. Some will boo. The fear of that disapproval paralyzes many people. They would rather avoid the decision than risk being wrong…