Radical Doubt: Why Uncertainty Might Be Your Greatest Advantage
Featuring Dr. Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar – Episode 674 of Passion Struck

Most of us are taught that confidence is power and that uncertainty is weakness. But what if the opposite is true? What if doubt is the signal that your brain is preparing to learn something new?

In this episode of Passion Struck, host John R. Miles sits down with Dr. Bidhan “Bobby” L. Parmar, professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and author of the groundbreaking book Radical Doubt: Turning Uncertainty into Surefire Success. Together, they explore why the smartest leaders and thinkers are not the ones who eliminate doubt but the ones who learn to use it.

Dr. Parmar’s work has been featured in leading journals, including Organization Science, Psychological Science, and Business & Society. He teaches courses on business ethics, collaboration, and creative decision-making. His latest book, Radical Doubt, offers a scientific and practical guide to transforming hesitation into confidence and confusion into clarity.

Key Takeaways

• Doubt is not a weakness; it is a tool for growth and insight
• The best leaders treat intuition as a hypothesis, not as the final decision
• Learning requires practice, feedback, and reflection, not just information
• Pausing creates space for better answers and stronger relationships
• When you act with curiosity instead of fear, uncertainty becomes your superpower

What is ‘Radical Doubt’?

For years, I kept the idea of building a podcast network on hold. I told myself the timing was wrong, the risk too high, the path too unclear. That fog was doubt, and learning to work with it became the turning point.

Radical doubt transformed hesitation into movement. Instead of rushing toward quick answers, I learned to pause, test, and build better ones. That is the heart of my conversation with Dr. Bidhan “Bobby” Parmar: doubt is not a defect to fix but a discipline to practice.

Radical doubt is not indecision. It is the deliberate act of slowing down to examine what is pulling you in different directions, allowing you to make smarter and more grounded choices.

Bobby describes three systems that guide how we respond to uncertainty: pursue, protect, and pause. Pursue drives us toward rewards and action, protect guards us from risk, and pause helps us reflect and integrate new information. Most of us live between pursue and protect, charging forward or pulling back. Radical doubt strengthens the pause, the mental space that allows us to see what we are missing, gather perspective, and design stronger answers.

Why Radical Doubt Matters

The problem, as Bobby explains, is not a lack of knowledge but our attachment to shallow certainty, the feeling of being right that outpaces reality. The key is shifting from being a right-answer getter to becoming a better answer maker. That single shift moves you from defending your first idea to refining it through testing and learning.

What happens when you apply this shift:

• You stop rushing for validation and start gathering evidence.
• You move from defending your position to improving it.
• You focus on learning rather than proving yourself right.
• You begin to see uncertainty as information, not as failure.

How to Practice Radical Doubt

Dr. Parmar shares a clear and repeatable process that anyone can use when faced with uncertainty.

Try this simple sequence:

• Name your current state. Recognize whether you are in pursuit mode or protect mode.
• Install a pause that is long enough to regain clarity.
• Generate alternative options using questions like a premortem or reversal to uncover blind spots.
• Run small and safe experiments that create meaningful feedback.
• Set criteria for when to stop or scale before emotions take over.
• Close the loop with reflection and extract lessons for next time.

This disciplined rhythm helps you break analysis paralysis without falling into reckless action.

The leadership lessons are immediate and practical. With toxic high performers, pausing allows you to see the true cost of keeping them on the team and provides an opportunity to test behavioral change.

In strategy, especially in the era of artificial intelligence, leaders can use Radical Doubt to pilot new approaches safely instead of waiting for certainty that never arrives. In team culture, the best leaders normalize the phrase, “I might be wrong, help me see it.” They reward people who raise early signals and make reflection a shared habit rather than a personal trait.

For me, this approach shaped how I built the Passion Struck Network. Pursue told me to go all in. Protect told me to stay comfortable. Radical doubt guided me to pause, run small experiments, and measure the results. By testing new formats, validating sponsorships, and learning from listener feedback, I built momentum one step at a time. The result was not the perfect plan; it was a better one shaped through evidence and curiosity.

You know you are practicing Radical Doubt when you can clearly explain tradeoffs, hold two real options, define your success and failure criteria, run small time-bound experiments, and improve after listening to feedback that challenges you.

If you want to start this week, pick one decision you have been avoiding. Name whether you are pushing too fast or holding back too much. Pause long enough to think clearly, then design a small test that gives you a real signal. Replace the need to be right with the commitment to build better answers.

Radical doubt is not hesitation. It is a skill that turns uncertainty into a source of strength and wisdom.

RESOURCES FROM THE SHOW WITH DR. BOBBY PARMAR

Please note that some of the links on this page (books, movies, music, etc.) lead to affiliate programs for which The Passion Struck podcast receives compensation. It’s just one of the ways we keep the lights on around here. Thank you so much for being so supportive!

1. Dr. Bobby Parmar’s All Socials & Resources HUB
2. *Free companion tools on The Ignited Life (Substack): theignitedlife.net
3. *Passion Struck Network: creator-first shows built around mattering, not metrics—passionstrucknetwork.com
4. *Apparel with a message: StartMattering.com — “You Matter. Live Like It.”

About Today’s Guest, Dr. Bidhan L. Parmar

Dr. Bidhan (Bobby) L. Parmar is the Shannon G. Smith Bicentennial Professor of Business Administration at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, where he also serves as Associate Dean for Faculty Development. He teaches courses on business ethics, collaboration, and critical thinking, and co-directs the Darden Experiential Leadership Development Lab. Dr. Parmar, a former fellow at Harvard University’s Safra Center for Ethics, explores how leaders navigate uncertainty and make values-based decisions that create long-term stakeholder value.

His work has been published in leading academic journals, including Organization Science, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Business Ethics. Named one of the top 40 business school professors under 40 in the world, Dr. Parmar is also the author of Radical Doubt: Turning Uncertainty into Surefire Success and the producer of the documentary Fishing with Dynamite, which examines the role of business in society. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife and two daughters.

Next Steps

You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, or YouTube. Don’t forget to explore our Passion Struck Starter Packs on Spotify for curated playlists that will help you dive deeper into topics like anxiety relief, resilience, and mental health mastery.

If this conversation with Dr. Parmar resonated with you, please share it with a friend, leave a review, or post a screenshot on Instagram and tag me @john_r_miles. Your support helps bring these life-changing conversations to more people who need them.

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