I always thought you need to to have magic to make good decisions. You see, those who usually make good decisions just have something that seems supernatural about them. They have this unusual confidence, and after learning a thing or two about this topic, I discovered why.

Risks

When this word comes up, one usually thinks about boring statistical calculations that they memorized donkey years ago and never really understood why they were being troubled to do all this.

You see, a risk is an uncertain event. We are worried about uncertain events that have negative outcomes. My question to you is wouldn't it be awesome if you could reduce the chances of bad things happening when you do stuff? 

Guess what? You can! Let's talk about how.

Before you do stuff (anything that gets you worried qualifies here), sit down and ask yourself the following:

• What about this makes me worried?
• What about this can cause harm?
• Who will it harm? What will it harm? When will it cause harm? How?
• What can I do to make it less likely that bad things will happen?
• What can I do to reduce the impact of the bad things if they do happen?

By doing this, you would have created what's called a risk analysis. Creating risk analyses is a super critical component of good decision making. Those who repeatedly make calculated risks (by doing risk analyses) usually perform better than those who flip a coin and dive in (that's not a good strategy by the way).

Listening

"I have learnt by listening to others" - A really lazy quote by some random guy on the internet

We are mortal. We don't live forever. Based on those two facts, don't you think it will be wise to learn from what others say? 

A question will then come - Who should I listen to, and why should I listen to them? I loved this quote I got from a good book and it goes something like this:

• Would you trust somebody who lives, eats and breathes bricklaying to plan for a huge musical concert with 50 artists and with an expected audience of 5000 people?
• Would you trust somebody who lives, eats and breathes gemstone polishing to build a very big dam for a new power station?

What this book was basically saying is choose the right people for the right things. Choosing the right people to listen to will save you countless hours and prevent you from making the same mistakes that many people have made in the past. It will save your money, your time, and it will bring peace. Because of this wonderful thing called the internet, we are able to listen to wise women and men through podcasts, YouTube videos, and also through these amazing things called books. 

The Titan

You know all about this. I chose this because I learnt of many people who made good decisions, and many who did not.

Bad Decisions

It is said that the Ocean Gate vessel was untested. It is said the materials were not fit for use. A simple risk analysis would have shown that the probability of bad things happening would be high. It has been revealed that many experts warned against the use of an untested vessel, among many other concerns. Nobody listened. This, very much like the story of the Titanic, is a very good example of bad decision making.

Good Decisions

I watched an interview about some popular explorer and he mentioned how he makes good decisions. He looks at the challenge - e.g. a remote place he wants to visit with a billion challenges - navigation, environmental hazards, etc, and sees how best he can reduce the risk. He does so by: changing the timing (timing plays a key role in most facets of life), choosing an experienced team to go with him, and going with the right gear and/or equipment. 

I also watched interviews of a father son duo (with 500 000 dollars to spare. Lucky bastards!) who actually wanted to get into the submarine, but they did two things - The son made a risk analysis and deemed the vessel unsafe. The father LISTENED to his son's concerns, and because of that, they are alive and well.

Ladies and gentlemen, make good decisions in your lives.

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