If you're not terrified, you're not going to win. You have to ride right up to the edge of control and not make any mistakes that cost you time.
No two situations are identical, but with years of experience you can usually find a comparison to something you did before, which shortens the process of deciding how to approach a job.
If you want to make real money, do something that scares the crap out of 99% of the population, and only one person in a couple of hundred is physically capable of.
