Decisions Decisions Decisions

By G. Claude Wright

decisions decisions decisions
If you often find yourself unraveling messes your poor choices have created, this book is a must read. Speaking to a wide variety of decision-making situations, its seventy seven principles provide the template for what a good decision-maker looks like. As you become aware of the multifaceted nature of some of these concepts, you'll find they apply to an even greater number of circumstances than you might have imagined.
Many of the lessons stress the reality that poor decisions bear consequences-and a few of the principles will open your eyes to the presence of subtle, but important nuances that might otherwise escape your notice. These, alone are worth the price of the book. My hope is that this book will wean you from the habit of second guessing yourself and transform you into a competent decision-maker.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 17, 2012
• ISBN: 9781468595932

G. Claude Wright

Gary Wright has been involved in a great variety of entrepreneurial activities during his business career. The first ten years of that career were spent in the stock and bond business which was followed by investments in various businesses and real estate properties. He is currently creating a resort property in Chacala, Mexico. Gary is very happily married, has six children, nine grandchildren, and lives in Evergreen, Colorado,

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© 2013 G. Claude Wright. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 2/7/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4685-7965-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-8017-4(h)

ISBN: 978-1-4685-9593-2(e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012907137

Cover Design by Karen Tachito

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgemnts

I. Sensible Decisions Making

Relinquished Decisions

Everybody Loves A Yes Man

Is Celebrity Endorsement Reliable Advice?

Ready-Made Wisdom

Only Fools Accept Dares

Check Your Focus

Assumptions Can Be Dangerous

Don’t Bet Heavily On The Untried

Tempted To Take A Break?

Not Deciding Is To Decide

Buy Time!

II. Insightful Decision Making

Seek A Small Victory

Reassess Your Resources

Backward Steps Can Produce Progress

Filter Your Decisions

Decisions Don’t Exist In Isolation

An Unusual Crystal Ball

Jump The Fence

III. Eliminating Waste

First Things First

Misplaced Items Waste Time,

Cost Money

A Costly Memory Lapse

IV. Examine Your Shortcomings

Do You Twist The Truth?

Control Your Anger

Unbridled Greed

Seeking The Easy Way Out

Procrastination Causes Problems

Repeating The Same Mistake

Do You Bore People?

I’m Bulletproof

V. Personal Improvement

Become A Positive Person

Invest In Others

Traits Of The Successful And Great

Guard Your Mind

Do The Right Thing

Protect Your Reputation

VI. Dealing With People

It May Be Legal, But Is It Right?

Protect Your Own Interests

There Are Givers…And Takers

Investigate Any Potential Associate

Guard Against The Inside Job

Beware The Charmer

Is He Really Your Friend?

He’s Your Competitor… Don’t Forget It

Identify The Dominator

Don’t Burn Bridges

Trade Viewpoints

VII. Success And Goal Seeking

Make Setting Goals A Habit

To Get There, You Must Begin

Goals You Shouldn’t Pursue

How Much Pressure Can You Stand?

Is Your Commitment Strong Enough?

When in a Battle, Fight to Win

Expand Your Options

Focus On Your ‘A’ Skills

Passion Separates The Best From The Rest

Stepping Outside The Box

You Will Pay A Price To Be The Best

VIII. Business And Investments

There Ain’t No Free Lunch

Getting In Is Often Easy…But

Is It Too Good To Be True?

How Much Do You Deserve To Make?

Unrealistic Expectations

Understand The Nature Of Opportunities

People Value Things Differently

Partnerships?

Value Your Trump Cards

The First Rule Of Risk Taking

Overlooked Wisdom

Know When To Hang In There

Know When To Retreat

The End Game Strategy

IX. Attitudes And Habits

How Do You Know It’s Bad?

Surprises In The Ashes

The Threat Of The Crowd

Take A Stand For The Truth

Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously

Feeling Sorry For Yourself?

Are You Spread Too Thin?

Value Special Moments

Surround Yourself With Beauty

What Kind Of Legacy Will You Leave?

Epilogue

Introduction

Decision making is a subject that has intrigued me for many years. In fact, I have a file in my office that’s as thick as a phone book, full of ideas about decision making. What you are about to read is an assortment of those ideas… ideas that I’ve been accumulating most of my adult life. From this file, I’ve selected those principles that I felt were the best and organized them into categories that will hopefully cover a majority of your life experiences. For these reasons, I feel confident that the concepts I’ve chosen will really help you improve your decision making abilities. In that process, I’m hoping to also elevate your understanding of what good decision making is truly all about. I should probably mention that many of these principles were the result of lessons I learned from some of the rotten decisions I’ve made!

Despite the quantity of principles I’ve introduced, this collection is by no means exhaustive. The number of possible decisions you may encounter in your life are magnitudes beyond the quantity to be found in this, or any other book. However, it is my hope that the ones presented will provide good counsel for a surprising percentage of your future decision making moments. I even feel that these principles will awaken an awareness of certain patterns that are common to most good choices. As you begin to recognize some of these patterns, it’s up to you to embrace their teachings. And when you do, you should begin to notice your increasing ability to identify that option, from among your many choices, that provides the most promise.

Thus, if you will make the effort to etch them upon your mind, they will serve as important contributors to an improved quality of all your future decisions. In fact, it’s likely that you will have gained insights that may result in a new respect from those who witness your increased wisdom. After all… it’s usually the wise, not necessarily the intellectual, who lives a life everyone envies.

To assist your understanding and recollection of a given precept, an illustration or short story (often taken from my own life) has been provided. I do feel a need to prepare you for my use of some illustrations that may seem somewhat corny or annoyingly obvious. However, after much deliberation, they made the cut because they did provide a fitting, and easily understood, example of the concept I’m trying to impress upon you.

The nine sections of the book have been arranged in an order that attempts to organize their sequencing as per my expectations of your need for the advice they provide.

They begin with a chapter entitled, Sensible Decision Making. The principles contained within this chapter address fundamental perceptions, beliefs, or attitudes that typically lead to bad decisions. By calling your attention to these harmful tendencies, the unwanted consequences of the decisions they spawn, can be avoided.

Insightful Decision Making is a collection of concepts that might best be described as subtle nuances that might be considered collateral considerations, often of hidden importance, to the decision being contemplated.

Eliminating Waste is a brief section which contains helpful, as well as interesting, suggestions for creating dependable habits that are aimed at minimizing losses of time and money.

The next three sections become more personal. The first, Examine Your Shortcomings, introduces concepts designed to help you deal with your weaknesses by urging you to consider the impact your character flaws can impose on all decisions involving your relationships. Hopefully, the suggestions provided by the principles contained within this chapter will motivate you to make a serious effort to address the need to work on those areas of your life. The second section, Personal Improvement is an about-face from the previous chapter. It is a collection of principles aimed at stressing the extraordinary value of those character qualities that enhance one’s character and the decisions that will contribute to that accomplishment. The benefits derived from these two sections should conclude in one’s improved ability to successfully deal with people, as well as an enhanced feeling of self worth. The third section, Dealing With People, goes one step further. It contains special insight about people. Its principles strive to increase your ability to understand a person’s hidden nature by providing an awareness of their concealed characteristics. They point out the necessity of dealing with people in recognition of their true nature and thus assist you in structuring your decisions accordingly. They should prove valuable in dealing with a broad range of people in a variety of circumstances.

Next, you are introduced to principles contained within a section entitled Success And Goal Seeking. It addresses the various decisions necessary to successfully seeking and realizing your goals. As you attempt to reach your goals (at least those that relate to your career or finances) it becomes imperative that you make quality decisions in these areas of your life. A related section, Business and Investments, presents with sound principles that are constantly being overlooked, particularly by those who haven’t realized success in their past management of career decisions or investment choices.

Lastly, I’ve included a chapter on Attitude And Habits. Its principles deal with several interesting and possibly different slants on issues pertaining to your habits and attitudes, as well as issues that relate to the quality of life itself. I would be very surprise if the principles introduced in this section didn’t prove valuable to you.

I hope my experiences along with the principles they birthed, will help you avoid poor choices and improve the quality of all your decisions with the result being a life well-lived. Here’s to good decisions!

Acknowledgemnts

First, I want to thank my wife, Janet, for all her time and clear thought that served to enhance the value of this book.

I would like to acknowledge Jo Ann Colton’s counsel regarding the world of authors and publishers.

I also wish to thank Lorna and Gene Kissinger for their help and encouragement. Additional thanks to my lifelong friend, Jim McLellan for his insistence that I persist in my efforts to produce a quality product.

My appreciation also goes to Carrie Daniel who helped me select, from among my main ideas, those principles and accompanying illustrations that were really worthy of inclusion in this book.

Finally, Barbara Kaptanian provided a wealth of encouragement, grammatical input, and wise counsel on all manner of content considerations.

My thanks to you all.

I. Sensible Decisions Making

There are countless approaches to making decisions. The ways that you will encounter in this section chronicle courses of action that typically lead to problems.

These concepts will help you avoid decisions that are unlikely to result in good outcomes. Being the product of faulty reasoning, careless indifference, or simple misunderstandings, they hold little potential for serving as worthy guides to properly dealing with life’s challenges.

It is the misleading subtleties contained within these kinds of decisions that are typically responsible for distracting your attention away from the heart of the issue and thus render sensible conclusions unlikely.

While far from exhaustive, I believe that that the advice to be gained from these eleven principles will protect you from making some of the bad decisions you might otherwise make.

These principles are as follows: Relinquished Decisions, Everybody Loves A Yes-Man, Is Celebrity Endorsement Reliable Advice?, Ready-Made Wisdom, Only A Fool Answers Dares, Check Your Focus, Assumptions Can Be Dangerous, Don’t Bet Heavily On The Untried, Tempted To Take A Break, Not Deciding Is To Decide, and Buy Time.

If you are guilty of making decisions after the manner described in these principles, you will find that these concepts contribute to your heightened awareness – an awareness of what not to do – as well as an understanding that there’s a price to be paid if you do.

Relinquished Decisions

How often have you done something like this when the stakes were much higher?

This decision-making principle is well illustrated by a story that occurred when I was twelve years old. I ignored every concept contained within this principle but, given my age at the time, my foolishness might be somewhat understandable. Such forgiveness, however, should not extend to a mature adult for whom the consequences of irresponsible decision-making often result in big losses and/or big problems.

At the urging of an older friend (he was fifteen), I accompanied him on a trip to the hobby store. Once inside, he decided that I should buy a model airplane. The same friend then decided that he would build it for me. I now realize that one of only three reasons for buying a model plane is to enjoy the act of building it yourself. The other two reasons would be to fly it and/or hang it in your bedroom. Being young naïve, and lacking the necessary courage to confront him, I gave him the model so he could build it for me – the final insult was the fee he charged me for building it! In any case, joy number one was now gone.

But there’s more to the story. There was a public park not far from my home. Once my friend completed the model, he decided that we should take the model plane up to the top of a ten-meter diving tower situated out in a lake that was within the park and fly it off. That sounded like fun until I began to worry that my little plane might not remain airborne long enough to reach the shore.

Given what I was about to learn about his plan for my plane, making it to shore was not something I needed to have been concerned about. After reaching the top of the diving tower, he reached into his pocket and brought out some matches and proceeded to light the tail on fire! His bright idea (decision) was to watch the burning plane spiral down into the water. I was demoralized to realize this was to be its first and last flight.

Gone now were reasons number two and three for buying a model plane. But it was too late (as the tail of my plane was in flames) to now concern myself with either of those purchase motivations. I watched as my investment hit the water – a charred mess, floating lifelessly on the lake below. I was crushed. I had allowed him to decide that I should buy a model airplane. I let him decide that he should build it. I allowed him to decide to fly the plane off the diving tower, and I allowed him to light the tail on fire. I had offered no resistance to any of his decisions.

Sensing my displeasure, he asked me if that wasn’t what I wanted to do. How cleverly he reinterpreted decisions that he, not I, had made. When I told him no that wasn’t what I wanted to do, all he could say was, Sorry! He didn’t offer to buy me a new model let alone include the building of it as a gesture of apology. His I’m sorry did nothing to make me feel better.

The lesson to be derived from Relinquished Decisions focuses on the habit of allowing someone else to make your decisions for you so that you will have someone to blame, beside yourself, should things not turn out as planned.

I had foolishly dodged any responsibility for the decisions that were made regarding my model airplane. Fortunately, all that lesson cost me was the price of a model airplane, my friend’s fee for building it, and a crushed spirit.

We are living in a time marked by widespread irresponsibility – an age where blaming others for our problems is the norm. For many, it’s always someone else’s fault.

In the business arena, many people have made investments because of the recommendations of another – often a friend or neighbor not qualified to give such advice. But, the advisor did have one qualification: He was someone they could blame if the investment went sour! But then, what other possible good is an advisor whose advice turns sour and costs you money? Maybe you hope he’ll give your money back? Well, you can forget that. Refunding your loss won’t ever enter his mind! At best, you’ll just get his, I’m sorry. More likely, he won’t return your phone calls.

* * * *

When needing advice, seek sound advice. Don’t be tempted to transfer the responsibility for the decision to the advisor for a decision you can’t, or won’t make just so you’ll have someone to blame should things go wrong. Assume responsibility for making your own decisions. Never relinquish your decision-making rights.

Everybody Loves A Yes Man

When you get the word from someone like this, why would you bother seeking a second affirmation?

My teen years were spent in a small but comfortable house in a nice part of town. Across the street from our house, however, was a luxury enclave known as the Polo Grounds. As one of the ritziest residential areas in town, it was totally enclosed by walls and fences. There was some vacant ground, but most of it consisted of many large and magnificent estates. One of the three entrances into that enclave was only one block up the street from my house.

Just inside that entrance was a vacant lot that was yet to be developed. It occupied a couple of acres, and like all vacant lots, it was full of weeds. But it had two trees that happened to be about one hundred yards apart – perfect targets for a little two-hole golf course. Because I attended the same school as one of the kids who lived in there, I didn’t feel at all uncomfortable going over to hit a few golf balls whenever time permitted.

One day, a guy who introduced himself as Randy came walking by the tree (my first tee) on his way home. Since I was only fifteen at the time, I’d never met Randy who was five or six years older than I was.

Because the golf community is a rather friendly bunch, and since my dad was the state champion, he knew a lot of people, among them, Randy’s parents.

It turned out that Randy lived in the mansion next to the vacant lot that had become my golf course. He asked me how I was doing, and we talked for awhile. Randy, who also enjoyed golf, wondered how I liked fighting the weeds that were so prevalent on my golf course. When I replied that I was doing OK, he said that I was welcome to come over to his house and set up my course on the enormous lawn which surrounded his parent’s estate. I couldn’t believe his offer. What a super nice guy!

His house and yard were magnificent In fact, I was to later learn that Randy’s parents were the owners of the Carey Salt Co.! No wonder they could afford such a palace. I was now being invited to make this into my own playground. Just what I wanted to hear!

I quickly scouted out the terrain and figured there would still only be two golf holes. The first would start at the entry gate to their property with the first tee being just a few feet from the driveway (right next to a beautiful flower bed). I’d be hitting toward their house to a tree that was about twenty yards to the right of their garage. The second hole’s tee was next to that tree with the green being another tree that was growing very near their entryway.

Prior to moving to this new venue, I had been working on my swing, but I found it a little tough because of the uneven ground and the weeds. Thanks to Randy, I didn’t have those problems anymore. I knew this opportunity would prove to be a big advancement in my plans to improve my game. I worked on all the swing mechanics that I had read about. For example, all the pros took divots with their iron shots. So I decided that’s what I needed to do. In fact, because I had selected such small areas for my tees, I had to move my hitting area around every once in a while to find fresh grass that hadn’t been dug up by my nine iron.

Because this was such great fun, I came often and occasionally at odd times, like Sunday mornings. I remember one Sunday morning when I arrived early. I’m sure that it was because I hadn’t warmed up yet, but my opening shot off the first tee was a high looping hook that hit their garage door with a surprisingly loud bang. I wasn’t sure whether or not I should play out the hole. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I should even hang around. Better yet, I decided to give my game a rest for a few days.

The next time I showed up, I was about to hit off the first tee when Mr. and Mrs. Carey drove up. Mr. Carey stopped the car and rolled the window down and asked, Would you mind discontinuing play for a few weeks to give us a chance to reseed? Even though I was young and shamefully insensitive to what I had been doing, I caught that message! I was so embarrassed! I felt so little I’ll bet I could have crawled into a golf hole. After that, I never again hit another golf ball on the Carey’s front lawn.

In retrospect, the thought of using the manicured grounds of the Carey’s estate as my own playground should have been something I would never have considered doing. It certainly embarrasses me to recall it now. But, I kept excusing myself. After all, Randy had said that it was alright. Deep down, I wouldn’t have wanted to ask Mr. Carey if he minded if I dug up his lawn. I knew what his answer would have been. Understandably, it was a question I never asked. I already had the answer I sought.. But then, I was just a kid – some continue to favor this selective reasoning as an adult.

Everybody Loves A ‘Yes’ Man urges you to consider the valueless nature of advice that comes from someone who’s programmed to tell you only what they think you want to hear. History is full of stories about kings and monarchs who surrounded themselves with yes men whose role was to always agree with the king, telling him what he wanted to hear. It was job security for the yes men, but inept and regrettable governance for the people being ruled by a leader who only listened to what made him feel good.

Corporate executives also have been known to do the same thing. As soothing as yes men can sometimes be, the nature of their one-sided advice can have disastrous consequences. The important question that you need to ask yourself is, Are you willing to risk failure because you insist upon confining your counsel to those who agree with you and will only tell you what you want to hear?

* * * *

Success will prove illusive when your advice comes only from yes men. Make a habit of taking advice from this kind of advisor and failure may be just a short step away.

Usually the best advice you will ever receive comes from the person who’s willing to risk your displeasure by telling you the truth. This is the kind of individual who’s not afraid to challenge your plans or ideas. If those plans and ideas can pass mustard with this type of critic, they’re probably sound.

Is Celebrity Endorsement Reliable Advice?

Celebrities, and those who pay them to endorse their products, may be pulling the wool over your eyes.

People love celebrities. They want to know all about them, get their autographs, and vicariously identify with their fame and success. It is amazing to observe the influence these famous people can have on us. It’s not surprising that celebrities have been used to endorse products since the pre-television days of radio broadcasting. The age of television merely served to broaden the use of celebrity endorsements. Decades ago, celebrity endorsements were presented as a testimony to that celebrity’s personal use of the product being promoted. More recently, celebrities are often used to endorse products with which they may have little familiarity and probably no expert knowledge.

Please excuse the use of these rather antiquated personalities for my illustrations, but the perfect example from those old days was provided by Mickey Mantle, the famous New York Yankee baseball player of the 1950s and 60s. He endorsed Gillette razors because he was a celebrity, not because he was an expert on shaving. He had no greater qualifications to be granted expert status on razors than any other man. When deciding to buy a razor, we needed to remind ourselves that Mickey’s claim to fame was baseball, not shaving!

The same could be said for the dry cleaning chain owned by Arnold Palmer. He quite naturally endorsed its services. As rich and successful as Arnie is, one has to wonder how much he worries about his laundry. With all the clothes he endorses, he may not have any dirty clothes that need laundering because it’s possible he never wears the same outfit twice!

Consider those really big name celebrity athletes who have been paid to sing the praises of some mid-priced American-made car. You sometimes wonder whether these people ever park their sporty, foreign-made, luxury machines long enough to give themselves a little more time behind the wheel of one of those cars they endorse. It may even be fair to say they may spend no more time driving one of their endorsed products than it took to film the ad.

This is not to say that a given product is unworthy of consideration just because a famous person recommends it, but these examples do explain why it’s unwise to base your decision just upon a celebrity’s endorsement of a product. Logically, it should be the inherent merits of the product that determine the choice you make. The example of celebrity endorsements was chosen because it so clearly illustrates the lack of a logical connection between the celebrity’s knowledge about that which made him famous as opposed to something about which he probably knows little, if any more than the average person.

The point being: we often allow an unqualified advisor to give us advice. At one time or another, most of us have succumbed to the counsel of someone not qualified to give advice, and despite their lack of adequate credentials, we accept their advice. This happens because many people seem to have opinions about many things; such a non-expert won’t usually refrain from expressing his opinion. To the extent you are influenced by their unsolicited advice, you may learn (the hard way) that most of this type of advice, from this kind of adviser, is often devoid of any real value. Such an advisor will often have no more knowledge about the subject (if even as much) as the one they’re advising.

* * * *

Decide you’ll accept advice only from those qualified to give it. Who would have argued with those who sought Mickey Mantle’s suggestions about buying a baseball glove? But, don’t bother to call on a Mickey for his counsel on shaving.

When making important decisions, seek the guidance of the most qualified expert you can find. For less important matters, decide to surround yourself with wise friends and associates who can be counted on to look over your shoulder when you’re in need of a second opinion.

Ready-Made Wisdom

At first, it may seem unbelievable to you that anyone would choose this approach to reach a decision. But, after reading this principle, you may realize that you have done so yourself!

This principle addresses those decisions that may require the exposure of some personal problem or embarrassing revelation to your family, friends, neighbors, or close advisors. Just the thought of having to bare your soul to any of these people can prompt you to wish to remove yourself from having to involve anyone else in your decision.

In order to avoid revealing your private affairs, you may be tempted to resort to impersonal advice – such as the insights that might be gained from a famous quotation or cliché. It might seem that all you have to do is pick one that seems to be applicable to your situation and you have spared yourself the anguish of unpleasant disclosures.

There is nothing inherently wrong in studying the recorded thoughts of some renowned intellect. These little bits of wisdom or humorous sayings can often enrich your speech and provide clarification to ideas you’re trying to communicate.

Nevertheless, they represent a poor substitute for the value contained in making your decisions for yourself. Your own informed decision, one that considers the actual facts surrounding the situation at hand, has no suitable substitute to be found in a volume of famous quotations. It is foolish to think you can trust some little saying in hopes that it might miraculously provide your answer. After all, the person who originally penned these platitudes knows nothing about you or your circumstance.

Do something, even if it’s wrong is an example of the ill-advised use of a cliché as an aid to decision making that comes from these senseless words offered as a solution to being stuck on the horns of a dilemma. When subjected to the light of common sense, most reasonable people would logically conclude that doing nothing is almost always better than doing something that’s wrong.

In the days of the ownership of my construction company, I found myself in need of a day-to-day manager for my company. A well-qualified man was being considered for the job. The decision to hire him finally came to rest upon his request to have the power to hire whomever he deemed fit, or fire whomever he thought wasn’t. With some hesitation, I finally agreed to his request and hired him. During several casual conversations with this new manager, I noticed his frequent use of this saying: You never make a mistake firing someone. That cliché seemed to summarize his feelings about the dispensability of any employee. Because things seemed to be going smoothly, I didn’t pay a great deal of attention to the manager’s frequent references to that cliché…until that horrible day when I discovered that my manager had just fired my son-in-law! There aren’t words to describe what that cliché cost me.

Another young man had just made the devastating decision to divorce his wife. In a subsequent discussion, I was curious as to what thoughts had led him to that decision. He told me that another