Opportunistic Decision Making

August 4, 2021

I said this once, and I'll say it agin: opportunity should guide decision making. Whether it's a career decision, a personal decision, or a small decision, it's important to make sure you know which decisions will lead to the most opportunities— and that is probably the one that you should take.

I'll talk about career decisions because this seems to be the most common "big decision" that most people will at some point have to make in their lives. Before declaring my major in college- I chose engineering after originally choosing business. My thinking was that engineering, especially mechanical engineering, would give me the most opportunities out of college, and that regardless of what happened to the job market, I could find a job or problem that my skillset was applicable to.

The same thought process can be applied to finding/applying to my next job: which opportunity would give me the most opportunities, both to professionally grow but also diversify my skillset? It's a simple decision making framework and one that I try to apply in everything that I do- and so far it's worked well.

The next time when you're undecided on what to choose and what to do next- think about which has more opportunities and potential. Try to avoid plateaus and dead ends as much as possible. Look for the tallest mountain and the longest road with the most exits/turns.