Notes from Kindleberger,1990
Historical Economics: A Bridge between liberal arts and business studies?

“Should one look before one leaps, or is it true that he who hesitates is lost? If it ain’t broke don’t fix it fits some occasions, but others demand a stitch in time that saves nine. when in Rome do as the Romans do is one rule for the multinational corporation, but there are occations when it is better to follow Polonius and to thine own self be true. Good, better, best, never let it rest, until your good is better and your better best is the optimistically American rule, but the French remind us that the best is the enemy of the good. Quit while you are ahead often applies but occasionally keep going when you are on a roll, embarked on the:

tide in the affairs of men
which taken at the flood leads on to fortune
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
is bound in shallows and miseries.
(Julius Caesar IV, 3.)

I could go on, but forbear, reminding you, however, not to stay spellbound before ambiguity, catatonic, like the ass of Bouridon, the French philosopher, which starved to death equidistant between two bales of hay, unable to decide which to go for first. In such circumstances it is important to do something; don’t just stand there. On the other hand, there are occasions when it is important to stand there, rather than just do something.”