The Impact Of A Few Bad Decisions

It’s kinda crazy how 3–4 whiffs can alter most of the rest of your life.

I have written a decent amount on decision-making since I started blogging, which is ironic because I myself am terrible at making decisions. Just a week or so ago, I wrote about decision paralysis — while that does seem to be common in many (esp. the current “youths”), I don’t struggle there. I can make decisions. They just often tend to be crap.

If you have ever dabbled even a little in hustle culture, you know there are quotes out there from guys like Bezos and Charlie Munger saying that your whole life is basically predicated on four decisions. I think one of those is supposed to be who you marry (didn’t work out that well for Bezos the first time, but whatever), and maybe two is where you live, but I’m sure for those guys, decisions 3–5 of import were about market entry and vertical integration and whatnot. That’s not most people.

I’ve also heard the theory that your decisions from age 15 to 35 shape everything, and while there are definitely large kernels of truth to that, there are lots of outliers. Many people bloom in their 40s. Fuck, I am trying to do that in my own way. (I’m successful at some things.) I think the average founder age on a successful start-up is 47, although that data varies immensely by…