Engineer's Finance

One of the most important qualities that everyone should possess is “Decision Making”.

When you have to make a choice and you don’t make it, that itself is a choice. – William James

The amount of decisions one makes in a day is roughly in hundreds, might be more also. How accurate are we in making decisions. Are we always right? I don’t mean the biggest decisions in your life like what you are going to study? What you want to become after five years or something else. I mean the simplest ones like how many sugar cubes to be added to the coffee? Should I work on this project now or later? Which is the one that I should be doing right now?

Generally I have noticed that people take way too long to decide on something. That is just because of the fear of losing or doing something stupid in front of others. The thing is that you should decide on something and stick with it. We change abruptly. One moment we think we are right and the very next moment we start feeling that what we have done is not right and try to correct the thing that was done wrongly ending up in crashing everything and doing nothing. This is because we are just scared of what we have done and not confident that what we are doing is right. One should need courage to stand by his decision. The whole world sometimes stands against the decision made by the individual but the individual wins at the end if he is sure of his decision. The ones who are brave and move with their decision have made a significant change in the society.

We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough. – Helen Keller

While traveling by train to Pretoria, Gandhiji experienced his first taste of racial discrimination. In spite of carrying first class ticket, he was indiscriminately thrown out of the train by the authorities on the instigation of a white man. Instead of fleeing from the scene, Gandhiji stayed back – for 21 years to fight for rights of the Indians in South Africa. This is a brave decision of one soul and it made a huge difference to the society and to the entire nation and the difference that brought about by this single soul still stands out. It is really very difficult to stand out and be with your decision but Gandhiji did it and because of his decision Indians in South Africa are living a peaceful life and they are treated equally with others. If Gandhiji had not decided that then I am sure Indians would have been suffering till now until unless a guy like Gandhiji comes up with the decision of doing something good to Indians in South Africa. This is the power of decision making.

Decisions can be right or wrong. It is just your perception of it. Say for instance, you have to make a decision whether to buy a “xyz shirt” or “abc shirt”. Both the shirts are branded and both are doing very well in market. You can buy either of them. The decision of buying either does not really signify anything important. If someone comments badly about your shirt then you will think I should have bought the other one. If you get good appreciations then you will think that I made a good choice. The fact is that you are not sure of your decision. You prefer someone else decide about your decision and get satisfied with it. One more thing is the fact that how many would decide to buy either of brands within ten minutes. Not many. If you can’t decide such small things within ten minutes then I am sure you can’t decide anything significant in a day or two. You will take ages to decide and by then things would have changed for worse. It is always good to shape iron when it is red hot. That is the time when you have to hit it hard and shape it the way you want. But if you decide to shape it when it is not hot then you know what the shape would be. That is how decision should be. It should be taken at the appropriate time and with good understanding. Once the decision is taken, have courage to stand by your own decision. If you can’t stand by your own decision then don’t expect others to even think of it or accept it. It is always good that you make up your mind and decide and stick with it.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision. – Peter Drucker.

Some decisions have to be courageous one and don’t be scared of the outcome. Whatever happens; happens for good. If things go really bad, just don’t forget the lesson that is it. Make decisions and stick with it and don’t get back with your decision. It is not good for you and for others. If you change your decisions frequently then the people who are with you might think that you are fickle minded and may not even bother you any time. If you stick with your decision then people around you prefer to speak up with you and ask for suggestions and do listen to it and act accordingly.

You can have your own path; just remember to decorate it with flowers.