Legendary investor Warren Buffett claims that investment decisions at his firm Berkshire Hathaway have been no better than so-so over nearly six decades, but that about a dozen truly good decisions have made their results sparkle in a way no one else has matched.
That’s the way it works with decisions. We all make more bad decisions than we hope to. No one comes close to perfection in decision-making. It’s not how many bad decisions we make, but how many good ones that change the complexion of our existence.
Getting a few things right matters much more than missing the boat on many other matters. The key is to make some quality decisions along the way, especially regarding the choices that most influence our long-term success and happiness.
Knowing what decisions are the most critical choices in life is the first step toward success. Of the many decisions that influence the trajectory of success for leaders, we often think of the meaty choices of visions, strategies, capital allocation, initiatives, new products or services, resource investments, and mergers and acquisitions. These are critical decisions, to be sure.
But the best leaders know something else is even more foundational to long-term success. The most important decisions we make are about the people we trust, partner with, hire, and spend time with. It is the people decisions that have the most profound impact on success and satisfaction.
Let’s make this point in a backward fashion. Speak to leaders at the end of their lives and they will tell you the biggest regrets or mistakes in their lives were not bad investments about ideas, but choices regarding people. They regret trusting someone they shouldn’t have or having gotten involved in a partnership that was wrong for them.
It is our decisions about people that matter the most throughout our lives. Get the people right (make a handful of great decisions against a few bad ones), and satisfaction is ensured.
The most critical decisions we make are to find people who make us better and help us to realize our dreams. As the author Neale Donald Walsch puts it, “The purpose of relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness.”
Finding those people and making the decision to stay connected to them is the game-changer of decision-making. How are you doing on the BIG decisions?
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
