Many of us are guilty of making quick assumptions whereby we come to a conclusion before we’ve examined the facts. For instance, try this brain teaser: “Two boxers are in a match scheduled for 12 rounds. One of the boxers gets knocked out after only one round, yet no man throws a punch. How is this possible?” You may not be all that familiar with the Marquess of Queensberry rules for Boxing, but you should know enough to see how impossible this looks, even though it turns out to be true.

Since we don’t know the facts, we can only go on assumptions. The term “assumption” is quite easy to define. It means accepting something as true or possible without having any proof. It is based mostly on speculation, guessing, a notion, conjecture, etc. It’s like throwing mud against a wall hoping that it will stick, or taking $20 to the store to pay for an item we presume will cost less than that, only to find out that we’ve miscalculated. The underestimation of the cost is not what embarrasses us, it’s having to turn around, go home or to the ATM and get more money.

But what about assumptions we make concerning others, especially our friends? I read this story about two businessmen with a great idea who made an assumption that ended up falling flat on its face. They tell us that several years ago they came up with a great idea for a new leadership-development program they thought would be valuable to everyone in their business. They had research showing that when people embarked on a self-development program, their success increased dramatically if they received periodic follow-up encouragement. So they developed a software application to offer that sort of encouragement. People could enter their development goals, and the software would send them reminders every week or month asking how they were doing. This was meant to motivate them to keep on going. They invested a lot of time and money in this product. But it turned out that people did not like receiving such unsolicited e-mails and considered them more annoying than motivating. Some of the users came up with a name for this type of software. They called it “nagware.”¹

They go on to explain how that failed assumption came about. First, they were too lazy to check the facts. They figured it was a good idea and went with it without checking to see if the people wanted such reminders.

Second, the program was so good they did not expect anything to go wrong. It’s hard for people to consider the possibility of negative events so they just assume the worst would not happen.

Third, they based their assumption on data they assembled without considering that such data is constantly changing and requires constant study. So they were indecisive at that point and decided to go with what they had.

Fourth, they were basing their theory on old data, therefore they remained locked in the past. It’s one of those “That’s the way it’s always been done” theories, so they made the assumption it would work in this case.

Fifth, they failed to see if their effort really was connected to their overall strategy. In other words, was this the best way to do what they wanted to do. That’s why when things went wrong, no solutions had been figured out for plan B.

Sixth, they were overly optimistic that the people who got the emails would respond the way they thought they would. So they made the assumption that these people thought the way they did.

Seventh, they made the assumption that these people felt about them the way they felt about these people. So they more or less lived in isolation with their own ideas. This denied them the expertise they may have gotten had they asked.

Eighth, they made the assumption that they had all the facts they needed to carry this out. So instead of searching for people with more experience and expertise, they went on what they knew.

And ninth, they did not communicate their intentions with the recipients before they started. They made the assumption that it would be alright with them. They forgot that communication is a decision that involves rational and implications, so there has to be a connection to make it flow successfully.

If this is so important in business, how much more important it is that we make assumptions about God, the Bible, our faith, or our fellow believers. That’s why we need to constantly talk to God, study His Word, practice our faith, and fellowship with believers; not to assume that we already know all that we need to know to be victorious for Christ.

By the way, the answer to the brain teaser we started out with is this: both boxers were women.