Previously, I shared lessons from the failed French attempt to build the Panama Canal. In this article: how the Americans nearly repeated those mistakes and what finally turned things around. President Theodore Roosevelt was enthusiastic about what a canal could do for America’s growth. "Let the dirt fly!" was his mantra, and he made sure everyone he appointed understood what was at stake. Unfortunately, his first Chief Engineer, John Wallace, took those words as literal marc

Imagine running a growing company and competing fiercely with your biggest rival. An opportunity arises to buy a highly valuable piece of land. But there are two big obstacles: • First, the land straddles the border between Honduras and Guatemala, with two different people claiming ownership. • Second, your competitor is also desperate to buy it, deploying an army of lawyers to prove who really owns it. What would you do? That was the problem Samuel Zemurray faced as owner

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One of my favorite quotes about how 'what we know' can limit us comes from noted historian Daniel Boorstin, who wrote in his classic, The...