Everyone on my team of executives has earned their right to be there by consistent stellar performance and a hunger to become better a tiny bit every day. Yet, even the individuals sometimes have their doubts about their performance.

Recently I sat down with a member of my team who confided in me “I know it’s my job to know what to do but sometimes I feel out of my depth”. I immediately interrupted him and told him: “You earn your job not by knowing what to do. You earn your job by making great decisions when you don’t know what to do.”. In a fast growing company like Shopify reality changes every few months. At scale, everything breaks. Not knowing what to do is how we spend most of our time. It’s those times that make or break an executive.