Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Key Takeaways

Your first instinct is adrenaline wearing the costume of clarity.

Ninety seconds of asking what you actually know beats a week of cleaning up what you assumed.

People won’t remember what you said, only whether your response felt proportionate and held up.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eu003cbru003e

You probably believe you will be the calm one when something goes wrong. You picture yourself absorbing the bad news, asking the right questions and setting a steady course while everyone around you scrambles. Then the phone rings late on a Friday, and the first thing that happens is not a thought. It is a reaction.

That reaction feels like clarity . It shows up instantly, it carries total confidence and it arrives with a jolt of urgency that makes waiting feel irresponsible. The trouble is, it often solves a different problem than the one in front of you.…