Jean Case opens with a central argument drawn from her career in philanthropy and impact investing: waiting for complete certainty before acting on a promising but unproven idea guarantees missed opportunity.

Why certainty is the wrong standard:

• Genuinely novel ideas, by definition, lack established track records to justify confident certainty
• Demanding proof before investing time or resources filters out precisely the innovative bets most likely to matter
• Bold action requires tolerating real risk and ambiguity, not eliminating it first

This opening reframes bold risk-taking not as recklessness but as a necessary response to genuine uncertainty that can't be resolved through more analysis alone.