ROI

Everything in life can be measured by ROI if you really put your mind to it.  The formula is simple: ROI = (Gain – Cost) / Cost.  An example?  Return on College Education = (Increase in Salary – Cost of Degree) / Cost of Degree.

It’s not hard to get to the number itself.  It’s what you do with the number that causes the headache.  Given the same ROI, two people facing the same decision of whether or not to go to college may end up choosing two routes that take them in very different directions.  That is not to say that they will never cross paths or end up at the same place again.  They may one day yet again face the same decision, and perhaps choose the same route.  But life is full of choices big and small, and the likelihood of two people going through life making the same decision on every turn is simply… unthinkable.

That’s what makes us human.  Unlike computers, our world is not made up of 0s and 1s, and we are not programmed to automatically choose one or the other based on logic.  We are impulsive and irrational, and that’s what makes it so exciting to be human.  To not know what to expect next, but to know every decision we make will lead us onto a new and unknown path.

Sometimes you make decisions that can only be described as dumb (See Darwin Awards winner stories).   Sometimes you don’t admit you made a dumb decisions.  Sometimes you don’t realize those decisions are dumb until much later.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, life doesn’t give you the luxury of “undo.”  You can only learn from the choices that you later decide are wrong, and hope you do a better job next time.

And why do I say fortunately?  Because life is not a Word document, where a typo will be a typo until by some miracle someone adds the word to the dictionary.  Life is ever changing, ever flowing, things happening without giving you any warning.  Decide to sleep in for five more minutes and miss a flight – bad decision.  Seeing the flight you missed in flames on the evening news – seems like you made the best decision in your life.  Choosing one of the top accounting firms to work for after graduating from college – good decision.  You chose Arthur Andersen – hmm.   Even when you don’t think you are faced with any important decisions, you are changing your own fate.  I’m sitting in my room typing away, and missing the chance to meet the love of my life sitting at the hotel bar downstairs.

Ok, most likely not.  But you never know.

Not knowing.  It makes life SO difficult, but if that were not the case, then what’s the point?

Take your time in making the decision.  Research, seek opinions, use silly formulas to calculate the return.  But after the decision is made, NO regrets.  You did what you thought was best at the time, and there is no “what if.”  You can’t even predict the future standing where you are now, but you think you know what would have happened if you made a different decision way back when?

Sometimes you have to help other people make decisions.  When they are weak, when they are young, when they are vulnerable.  Sometimes you have to make difficult ones, where you know people will be hurt, or you will be hurt, but it’s to avoid more pain in the future.  Sometimes, you wish you didn’t have to decide.

Sometimes it’s just decided for you.