Bad Decisions Beat No Decisions For Entrepreneurs

Shannon Waller: Hi, Shannon Waller here and welcome to Inside Strategic Coach with Dan Sullivan. Dan, we've been having some great conversations, especially in the workshop, around bad decisions and indecision. And I'm excited to talk about this because I think people get very, very concerned about making bad decisions and they get kind of stuck with it and then they're indecisive and then nothing happens. And one of the things that you've said is that a bad decision is better than no decision. So let's talk about that. First of all, what kind of bad decisions are we talking about? And then why is the bad decision better than no decision?
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, well, I think people get paralyzed in situations. They're in a state where nothing's happening except they're in the state of not making a decision. But the pressure builds on them day by day if they don't make a decision and they can't make a decision. And this could be in any situation in life. My experience is that even if you don't feel you have enough information, and it's risky to make the decision, just make a decision that requires that you take action of some sort. And as soon as you start taking action, all of a sudden you get an enormous amount of information about whether that was a right action or a bad action.
 
So what's the problem with no decision is that you're not changing the circumstance. You're paralyzed by a situation. And as long as you don't make a decision that the pressure of that not making the decision actually keeps getting more and more intense and you feel isolated and you feel disconnected from everything because you're obsessed by the fact that you're not making a decision. So the decision is just decide to take an action so that you find out what your situation actually is. So that's my basic thought. Humans are best when they're in motion. And if you're not in motion, you're not getting any new information because the circumstance is not changing.
 
Shannon Waller: Well, and one of the ways that you phrase it is that there's no reality. You're not checking your, you know, your decision, your action against the world. So you're not getting any feedback. And in our own heads, we can go a little squirrely with stuff.
 
Dan Sullivan: Humans hallucinate when they don't have feedback.
 
Shannon Waller: Ooh, humans hallucinate when they don't have feedback.
 
Dan Sullivan: So the big thing is take a decision about anything and go for the action because people become unproductive when they're not making decisions. They're not creating anything new. They're not producing anything new. They're not seeing any new results because they're paralyzed. They've paralyzed themselves with indecisiveness.
 
Shannon Waller: Where do you think that fear of making a bad decision comes from?
 
Dan Sullivan: I think it's a perfectionism that you have to make the right decision. Before I started Strategic Coach, I was a copywriter in a big ad agency in Toronto. My creative director, he was half owner of the company. He was from the streets. He grew up, he was a tough street kid. He was just a tough guy, but he didn't go to college or anything. He went to college later as he became more successful and he got his bachelor's degree, he got a master's degree, he got a PhD, but he didn't do that until he was in his thirties and forties. And he did it night school and he did it on weekends. Very smart.
 
But people say, well, I want to make the right decision. He says, you know, nobody makes right decisions. You make a decision and then you make it right. So that means that you're holding off because you don't have enough information, but you're never going to have enough information. A concept that we have is called The 4 C’s. People have said, I'll do this when I have the confidence to do this. But you don't have confidence to do something. Okay, except make a decision, have the confidence to make a decision that you start moving towards something. And the moment you do that, very, very shortly, information comes to you whether it's a right decision. And it doesn't take very, very long. It'll take a day. It'll take a week, perhaps, for you to decide to get new feedback about what you're doing. But you're in motion. Information comes to people who are in motion. If you're not changing anything, there's no new information.
 
Shannon Waller: I love that. Information comes to people in motion. Yeah, I think that's really true.
 
Dan Sullivan: You actually have to be committed to something. And the moment you're committed to something, then you start getting feedback, you know, what's working, what's not working, you know, what's working about this, what's not working, that's good information. And then you start realizing that you have to become better at something, you have to improve at something. And that's good information, because you're developing a greater capability than you had before.
 
Shannon Waller: Well, it strikes me, Dan, that then you can creatively respond because you're getting information, what's working, what's not, right? You keep doing what's working, you know, create solutions to what's not working. So you're in a creative, problem-solving, value creation mode when you're in motion. When you're just in your head, you're just freaked out or not committed. You're passive, as you were talking about, and unproductive, which none of us really want to be. Yeah, it strikes me that this is really important for an entrepreneurial company and not just the owner, not just the person in charge, but for the entire team to actually be willing to make mistakes, learn, make bad decisions, just make the darn decision.
 
Dan Sullivan: There's a bit of perfectionism about this, that your whole life is based on right decisions. I don't know any life that's ever been based on just right decisions. I know a lot of lives that got better because they were decisive, that they were making decisions. Decisive people make mistakes. Decisive people get it wrong because their emotion, their brain works differently. They come into any situation, you have a lot of experience about what works and what doesn't work, but you don't have access to any of your own wisdom when you're indecisive.
 
Shannon Waller: Ooh, I love that. It was really fun. I was talking to Chad Willardson about this in the workshop yesterday, and he coaches his kids, he's got five kids. He goes, be a decider. And he's got Activator number one from CliftonStrengths. He's like, just decide. And I think that's so powerful because you just make things happen so much more quickly. So if you're addicted to speed, like I am, then that's a critical part of it. Dan, let's talk about the word decide, because you said in the workshop that you use the word decide more than choice or choose. Let's go to the definition of decide.
 
Dan Sullivan: Well, that's a Latin word. Decidere is the Latin verb, you know, and the cide, c-i-d-e, we already have words like that. Homicide is to kill, you know, suicide is to kill yourself. So the cide is to kill. As it relates to decisions, you kill off the alternative. You're indecisive because you're going between all sorts of alternatives, but you're not committing to anything in particular, so all the possible alternatives keep multiplying. Well, I could do this, or I could do this, or I could do this, and they're equal to each other. The moment you choose one alternative, it gets rid of the other alternatives, and your mind can focus. You can't focus if you're indecisive.
 
Shannon Waller: Oh, I love this. It's interesting, Dan, because there's a lot of life decisions, like life partners. When you actually decide to, in my case, get engaged, get married, I just remember my brain got quiet for about six months and then new things popped in. Bruce and I have been dating for a long time. And it was just, even though we've been dating and committed for a long time, when we decided to get married, it was like, oh, part of my brain just calmed down, which was really fun. People decide to get a new job, they decide to start a new company, they decide to end a partnership, they decide to start a new one, whatever it is, it allows your brain to actually get into that productive, focused mode and come up with new things.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, I think the big thing is that when you're indecisive and you're not choosing to focus on one thing, you're cut off from all your previous capabilities. You've built up capabilities, but you don't have access to those capabilities, okay, because your brain isn't focusing on one thing.
 
Shannon Waller: Right, you're waffling.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, I just started a new practice, and it's been about two weeks now, that when I think about tomorrow, there's a whole series of things that I have to do, and they're not equal to each other. But until I frame myself that one of them is more important than any other one, I'm not really capable of doing any of them. And they're all talking to me, all the things that I could be doing tomorrow. We have a tool in Strategic Coach, which is called the Fast Filter. And I say, I'm just going to focus on doing one thing tomorrow, regardless of whether I get any of them done. But I'm going to get one thing done completely, and it's going to be a complete success. I'm going to do one.
 
And I do this the night before, or at least sometime in the day before. And I go through, and I say, okay, so I'm focusing on this one thing. What's the best result if it gets done? What's the worst result if I don't do it? And then I say, I'm going to do five things in completing this that I do extraordinarily well. But not only that, I'm going to learn a lot from this. I'm going to be in a position when I get this one thing done to do certain else. And then the next day I get to that and I get that one thing done and I feel 100% my confidence is up. I have actually developed a new capability.
 

 
And the rest of the day, so I say that one thing means I've had a 100% day. And what I notice is I get two or three other things done really easily that were on the list that seemed difficult, but after I've completed the one thing, they all seem easy.
 
Shannon Waller: And that's because you have 100% confidence after doing the Fast Filter?
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah.
 
Shannon Waller: Love that.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah. And I'm in a state of being really focused. I'm in a state of having high intentionality. I have a sense of real agency that I got this done. And all of a sudden, everything else that I wanted to do gets really easy. And then I go to bed that night, I said, what a great day. But I go to bed that night, I do it for the next day. I'm gonna see, can I do this for a whole week? Well, I've done it for a whole week. I'm gonna do it for two weeks. I've done it for a whole two weeks. The momentum builds up that I'm doing one great thing every day that feels like 100% for the day.
 
Shannon Waller: Well, and Dan, that's powerful. If I compare that to most people, when they go to bed or when they wake up, they've got a list of 30 things that they think they could, should, would be doing, all Gap ideas. But instead, you're locking in on one most important thing and giving yourself, and it's so focusing what you're doing, because you're really thinking it's really the best result, the worst result, your five success criteria, and you're building it up to be something that's really gonna move you ahead. So you're really getting yourself into motion with that exercise. Interesting. Great new tool.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, and already I'm noticing after two weeks of momentum of always having this 100% win every day, that I'm becoming more wise about what I take on as obligations. And I say, nah, I'm going to talk to somebody else to do this, you know. So what I notice is my ability to say, well, I'm not going to do it, but I'm going to talk to somebody else doing it. So what I'm noticing, I'm becoming much more effective in using other people's help as I go forward, because I don't want myself obligating myself to tomorrow to too many things.
 
And I have a pretty predictable schedule compared to most people, because my life consists of doing podcast projects like I'm doing with you. That's one thing that I'm always going to be doing, and there's a schedule of podcasts coming up. I'm always going to be writing a new book. I produce a brand-new little book every quarter. Then I have a big book project that basically comes out once a year. Then I have workshops. I have to get ready for workshops, and I have to create new thinking tools for a workshop. You know, I'm freed up in the Strategic Coach company that I'm freed up just to do these things. And these are all important activities. It's my role to actually be doing all this work.
 
What I'm noticing, I'm becoming very, very Teflon-ish. People try to get me to do things. I said, that's not really my role. I'm going to give it. So I'm protecting my role. I've got a central role in the company, but I'm not agreeing to other projects that don't relate to what other people depend upon me most to complete.
 
Shannon Waller: To put that another way, Dan, to me, it strikes me that you're being very discerning about your commitments.
 
Dan Sullivan: About my inventiveness.
 
Shannon Waller: Yes, your inventiveness, which we count on you for. And it's interesting if you were not protecting that. And I remember we've worked together for a long time and been friends for a long time that, you know, you were a kajillion times busier. You had so many different projects on the go and you've pulled them off. I mean, the stuff you produced back then is still incredibly timeless. However, now you're at the point of really laser focusing in on certain things and making sure you deliver at an incredibly high level. It's interesting, because that gives everyone else, clients, team, your audience, a lot of confidence about what they can count on you for. You're not distracting yourself from what's most important.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, and the truth is that if I did a survey, you know, with yourself and Gord, who's our manager, these are the things that are on my list of things, which ones do you think I would do? They would be very, very keenly intelligent that Dan, you should be doing this. And I've gotten to the point where my judgment about this matches their judgment about this.
 
Shannon Waller: Always a good thing to have that alignment. Well, and Dan, going back to our conversation about decisions, you are deciding very powerfully with full attention, full intention, full focus on what is most important the next day. So you are deciding even from three, which has been what we've talked about, down to the one most important thing, but then the other ones just kind of happen.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah, I find if I just focus on one and complete it, two and three get done. Isn't that great? You know, I've got a lot of energy. I sleep well. You know, I'm in really good health and everything like that, but they're not equal to each other. What I'm saying is that when you have a list of five things that you have to done, they're not five equal things. One of them is far more important than the others. The other four are negotiable, but one of them is not negotiable.
 
Shannon Waller: So just out of curiosity, because we've spent most of the day together today, which one was most important for you last night? What did you do The Impact Filter on, Fast Filter?
 
Dan Sullivan: I did it on getting the Impact Filters done for our book recording this morning.
 
Shannon Waller: That's what I thought you were going to say.
 
Dan Sullivan: But doing the book recording today and doing the podcast today was not the number one thing. The number one thing is an hour I have to spend a night to make two pages of progress on my big book for the quarter. This is bonus activity today.
 
Shannon Waller: It is. But it's interesting because without those two Fast Filters, we couldn't have had the recording.
 
Dan Sullivan: No.
 
Shannon Waller: Right. So I think what I'm hearing is that you get down to the one thing that's going to impact all the other things.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yeah.
 
Shannon Waller: And if you get that done, then you're kind of safe and secure in what you have to get done. If you did not and put some other priority, it would not have happened as well as it did this morning.
 
Dan Sullivan: Yep.
 
Shannon Waller: That's very cool. All right. So wrapping up, a bad decision is better than no decision versus being indecisive. And I think that's really key.
 
Dan Sullivan: What I noticed is I've not been indecisive about anything during the past two weeks because I've adopted this new policy, new practice for me.
 
Shannon Waller: This would be a good one for me, I think. I'm going to try that, Dan. As you're talking, I'm thinking of Chad's line that he coaches his kids on, be a decider. That's where the creativity, the power, the productivity is going to come from is being a decider. Excellent. Great. Thank you, Dan.