Do you ever look back on your decisions and think, “Why I on earth did I do that?”

We all make bad decisions.

Buying an SUV that sucks up all your cash
Starting a relationship without being in love
Saying yes to a job that you’re not passionate about
Creating products that no one needs
Stuff happens (the above examples are all about me). But the funny thing is that bad decisions never seem like bad decisions in the moment.

I’ve been reading about the decision-making process of Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger, two of the most successful investors of all time.

In Alice Schroeder’s biography of Warren Buffett, I read that Buffet and Munger have a learning strategy that’s based on what you should avoid doing. They identify mistakes and do their best to avoid those mistakes.

But as Charlie Munger says:

“Smart people do dumb things.”
You can never avoid making a mistake. However, you can do your best to avoid making dumb decisions.

Plus, by learning from other people’s mistakes, you can make their mistakes your own. You’ll learn faster that way.

Don’t Overthink.
Smart people are way too preoccupied with doing the right things. They want to have the perfect life, career, house, business, car, holiday, etc.

When you put too much pressure on yourself to make the right decisions, you get analysis paralysis.

I recently spoke to a friend who wanted to make a career move. I asked him to walk me through his thinking process:

“I like the company I work for, but my job isn’t engaging anymore. I’ve been doing this work for four years. And sure, I’ve been promoted twice, but it’s still the same work. So I’ve been looking at other companies. But what if I go somewhere else and that doesn’t work out? I’ll have to move on quick. And that won’t look good on my resume.”
I remained silent.

“Just hearing myself talk leads me to another thing: Overthinking it.”
We both laughed our assess off. I can do the same with overthinking. And I bet you’ve been there too.

When you overanalyze every single decision, you become paralyzed. Result? Nothing. Now, that’s a bad outcome!

That’s how people end up wasting their lives.

The only way you can stop overthinking is making yourself aware of your thinking process. When I asked my friend about his thinking, he became aware of how irrational his process was.

You can’t control the future. So stop thinking about it.

Do This Instead: Make Small Decisions. Decide Often.
I recently read Seeking Wisdom by Peter Bevelin. It’s about the way Charlie Munger thinks. One of his decision-making strategies is to avoid mistakes. But that can be interpreted in different ways.

You can fear decisions altogether because you might make mistakes. What happens is that you don’t make decisions at all. As Munger says:

“The difference between a good business and a bad business is that good businesses throw up one easy decision after another. The bad businesses throw up painful decisions time after time.”
You can interpret that Munger quote in different ways. I interpret it as follows:

When you make small decisions early, before they become big — it’s easy. When you put off decisions, they become big — and painful.

For example, I’m not happy with the email provider I use to send out my newsletter. Their support is slow, there’s no good integration with my online courses platform, and readers have complained about not getting my newsletter.

This is something that’s on my radar for more than 1.5 years. At the time my list was less than half of the size it’s today. I also had only one online course. Now, I have three.

The hassle of moving to another provider gets bigger every day. Had I moved early, it was easy. By now, it’s a painful process.

In life, it’s exactly the same. The longer you stay in a bad relationship, the harder it gets to leave. It’s also true for your job.

Earlier Decisions Lead To Better Decisions
The earlier and more you decide, the more chance that you make better decisions.

I often say that there are no right or wrong decisions — only decisions. That’s not entirely accurate. Of course, there’s a difference in the quality of our choices. That’s the topic of another article.

But here’s the thing: NOT making a decision is also a decision. It’s a choice to put things off until “another time.”

So in effect, you’re making decisions all the time. Instead of making fewer decisions, we need to make them earlier.

Because all you need are a few good choices in your lifetime anyway. What will be your best? You only find out after, you guessed it, you’ve made a decision.

This article was originally published on DariusForoux.com

As another Mother’s Day comes and goes, I silently reflect on years gone by. Wow, they do go fast! I think everyone that is a mother wishes they could be warped back in time to either relive the great moments one more time or to get a redo on the things that that didn’t go so well.

This Mother’s Day, in particular, I witnessed a charming and helpful exchange between my nearly 15- year-old son and my brother who spent nearly an hour coaching him to be “great”! Having been on the receiving end of those lectures, there was a part of me that wanted to drag my not so little guy out of there. However, the conversation was heartfelt and endearing to listen to and I actually had a take away myself!

My brother advised my boy to watch the “Ted Talks, Know Your Why”. As I zoned out listening to the diatribe between uncle and nephew, I decided a refresher in knowing my “why” would be beneficial.

Simon Sinek narrates the episode and I would highly encourage you to review it.

https://tinyurl.com/MediaCOMInc-KnowYourWhy

In a nutshell, he breaks down leadership and believes you only need one thing to be a leader – followers!

Poor or inexperienced leaders manipulate people to follow them either by power, rank, or influence. But the truly great leaders of the world are those who have learned to master the ability to inspire people. Personally, I have always believed that through strong relationship building comes unmatched loyalty.

Sinek details the history of Apple, Harley Davidson, and Southwest Airlines and how their unique approaches to marketing made them world leaders. It is their inspirational vision, clarity of why, discipline of how, and consistency (in that order) that has built their success.

From a biological standpoint, it is feelings that control your decision making, thus reinforcing how imperative relationship building is.

In summary, it’s clear that to be effective in business as a leader or at home as a leader – knowing your “why” is the most effective way to inspire others to follow. Say and do what you believe and trust emerges. This proves that you are a reliable source. It’s always good to take pause and re-evaluate what it is that is driving you – or not!

Credit: Beki Rainey-Hamell

Credit:  Jennefer Brunett

Video is an increasingly important tool in all aspects of marketing. It’s especially important when it comes to employer branding. You want people to feel compelled to join your team as much as you want people to feel compelled to purchase your products or services. You’ll never see the success you deserve if you don’t have right kind of employees taking you to the top. Make a great first impression with video marketing, and watch the top talent roll in.

Exhibit and Celebrate Company Culture
Company culture is of the utmost example. Who are you? What do you do? How do people work in your offices? What do you stand for, and what are you looking to accomplish in the long term? A great job is a long term commitment. Use video to show people what they’ll be committing to. Video is the closest you can get to an authentic experience without actually bringing everyone into a room with your employees. Let them see how you celebrate your company culture. They just might want to become a part of that celebration.

Types of Videos You Can Consider
Depending on your budget, timeline and scope,here are few ways you can use to create your video:

Live shooting – This is the most common and best way to create impressive videos that can emotionally appeal to your potential employee. Generally it is done by hiring a professional video photographer to come in and do a photo-shoot of your office campus featuring different moments and the work environment. However, this can often be a very costly and time taking affair.
Animated video– There are several animated video companies who can create a cartoon or motion graphics style animated video explaining your company values and work culture. This can be done quick and within a limited budget.
Video creation software– If you are one of those who would like to do it yourself, you can try using video creating software like Videoscribe, Wideo and GoAnimate. They are generally very easy to use and if you have a creative mind, you can come up with something nice.
Research Your Competition and Deliver More
You’ll want to include the video you create along with your job postings. Take a look at popular job boards like Gumtree. View your competitors’ postings for similar jobs. Outside of posting a video with your job ad, what else can you do to set yourself apart? You want the right candidate to view your description and watch your video, feeling compelled to submit their resume to you first. Think about what they lack and what messages they aren’t selling. These should be your major talking points.

Give Your Employees a Voice
A lot of people make their purchasing decisions based on the reviews of others. If you’re trying to sell your company to a candidate, let your current employees review you. If potential employees can see the way your current employees speak about their positions and their opinions about working for your company, this just might be what it takes to make them believers. Viewers will have a face to put with the voice, and that will help them solidify what they’ve heard.

Focus on the Upsides
A lot of the upsides of working with you might be hidden in long blocks of text or small print. Do you offer education to your employees? What about advancement opportunities? Do you have office parties every time you complete a huge project together? These are excellent talking points, and they’ll make a great addition to your video. Bring these things to the forefront. People who are serious about sticking with a company will want to know what that company can offer them in the long term.

Start a Conversation
Since videos are more engaging than text posts, take that engagement to the next level. Encourage potential candidates to respond with videos, whether they be longer and more informative videos or quick participation through a platform like Snapchat. What you want to do is create a call to action that motivates potential candidates to reach out to you. You need to get the conversation going as the first step in the recruitment process.

Never underestimate the power of video as a medium. It affords you with new ways to capture attention and demonstrate your value. Going the extra mile to produce quality videos will help you make some great first impressions, and who knows if one of those people may be your CEO someday?

Credit:  Jennefer Brunetti