How To Improve Your Decision Making In Business With This One Thing

As a business owner, you have two types of decisions …

Short Term and Long Term.

To some degree, all your decision making in business falls into one of these two categories. And the reason so many people scale to six figures but then struggle to go any further is because they become masters at making short term decisions.

BUT… remain terrible at making long term ones!

A good example is how most entrepreneurs invest in their business:

  • You see something you want to invest in (a new piece of software) …
  • So you log into your bank account and see how much is in there…
  • And you check your projections to see what’s coming in and what’s going out…

If you like what you see, you invest in the new software.

If you don’t, you do not

You take the same approach when building your team. You find someone you would like to invest in, so you check your bank account and crunch the numbers. If they look good, you hire them. If not, you don’t.

This is NOT how you approach decision making in business!

As the lead of your business you need to make long term decisions that ensure you thrive in the future.

It’s not to say you should disregard short term decisions and take huge risks, nor does it mean you should take on massive debt and put everything on the line. But as an entrepreneur, your success comes down to the decisions YOU make.

You need to have the confidence in yourself (and your team) that you are resourceful enough to make your investment worth while. The job of an entrepreneur is to turn the impossible into possible, not play it safe and only make decisions based on the money in your account right now.

  • Is that how Elon Musk works?
  • Is that what Steve Jobs did?
  • Did Oprah build her empire this way?

NO! Successful people know when to make long term decisions, and then overcome the fear that holds them back. If all you do is make decisions based on the next 30… 60… 90 days, you’ll remain in the six-figure hamster wheel the rest of your life.

You have to break free of this if you wish to scale to the next level.

And I get it… you have responsibility, a family, maybe, and a lot to lose.

The thing is… who doesn’t?

 [smart_track_player url=”https://soundcloud.com/scott-oldford-show/how-to-improve-your-decision-making-in-business-with-this-one-thing-ep45″ ]

 

It’s Time to Become a Time Traveller

Every single person faces this kind of fear. As humans, we’re born to survive — not thrive.

Short term decisions ensure we survive to the end of the day, week or month. This is safe. This is comfortable. This is what a huge part of you wants to do, and only do.

Whereas those long term decisions… what need do you have for them?

Well that’s the thing, because these days we have a lot of use for the long term. We’ve evolved to a point where we aren’t just focussed on surviving, but curious and driven enough to thrive.

And as an entrepreneur you are the extreme version of this curious and driven person.

Your job is to make those long term decisions, even if it means short term pain. You must time travel into the future: 1 year from now, 3 years, 5 years or more…

You make investments not just based on the impact it will have today and next week, but whether it will all be worth it twenty years from now.

This is what you must do.

But this is REALLY hard!

Like anyone, I struggled with this for a long time. But since I stopped making short term decisions, it’s changed my life, business and relationships.

There was a launch we did, not long ago…

We needed more money to make it happen, so I had to take on 1-1 work to bring it in.

I didn’t want to do 1-1 work. I don’t enjoy it. I didn’t have the time for it, and I knew it would cause me and my team a lot of short term pain. That inner voice told me to scrap the launch all-together.

But I knew this launch would generate seven-figures and allow us to invest and scale long into the future, so I fought my fear and made the “right” decision anyway.

 

Do What Nobody Else Will, So You Can Live Like Nobody Else Can

Sometimes you have to sacrifice your present so you can enjoy the future.

Often, you have to leap into the unknown with no guarantees or security…

This is hard. At not point in life is this easy. But if you want easy you should stick to the 9-5, because there’s no room for “easy” on the entrepreneurial rollercoaster.

It comes down to YOU making the decisions you need to; not what feels comfortable.

You have to bet on yourself and assume you’ll achieve what you need to.

When it comes to decision making in business, this is what it’s all about…

You have to overcome your urge to make short term decisions,

and instead make the difficult long term decision that are the “right” ones to make.

But it’s hard, and everyone resists it…

We come across this resistance often at 1MT. We speak to great entrepreneurs who are a great fit for one of our programs, but then they say “I’m not sure I have the money for this right now. Maybe we can revisit this in a few months…”

What they are really saying is:

“I’m scared I won’t be able to make this investment work.”

Everyone’s scared every single day, but the most successful entrepreneurs I know are those who make the brave decision and BET on THEM!

They look past 30 days… 60 days… 90 days… and instead focus on the future.

They make today work, sure, but ensure everything they do in the here-and-now is for tomorrow.

Four Frameworks

FREE Guide for Entrepreneurs

The 21 Laws Of Scaling A Profitable Business

I discovered 21 principles Entrepreneurs can use to scale their businesses with alignment and harmony…

If you’re an expert, author, course creator, coach, mentor or service provider making between $10-500k/mo, you are exactly who I made this for…

And I guarantee you’ll find at least 3 things that you can use today that will open you to possibilities for freedom and profit you’ve never considered until now.

Related Posts

How To (Kinda) Escape The Entrepreneurial Hamster Wheel For GooD

How To (Kinda) Escape The Entrepreneurial Hamster Wheel For GooD

One of the most common things you will come across in the entrepreneurial community—I should know because I’ve been part of it most of my life AND mentored hundreds of others—is the desire to escape the “hamster wheel”. You know it well, I’m sure… No matter how much...

The Purpose Pyramid—Which Level Are You Currently On?

The Purpose Pyramid—Which Level Are You Currently On?

There’s this dangerous, toxic, and devastating myth going around the entrepreneurial community… In fact, it doesn’t stop with entrepreneurs! It affects almost everyone in almost all walks of life. It centers around a word that triggers a lot of people… SELFISH. Are...

The 5 Currencies of an Entrepreneur

The 5 Currencies of an Entrepreneur

When you read the word currency, what comes to mind? Money? It’s money, isn’t it? Don’t worry… this isn’t a trick question. Money is the word that comes to mind for almost everyone. But money alone doesn’t tell the full story, which is why I’ve felt so empowered to...