I’ve been in my current office space for 5 years. It seems hard to believe that 5 years has gone by and I am now facing the decision of whether or not to renew and stay in my current space, renew and move to a different office just a couple suites down or just find a new office altogether. Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, I will deliberate and overthink this decision. I will use every piece of available information to try and make the best decision for my clients, myself and the business. I will think about the sunk costs, like the nice glass paned doors we paid to have installed, but will likely have to leave behind. Yet for all the energy that will go into it, I know that in the end, the consequences of a wrong decision are small and I won’t have to live with them for very long. Maybe I renew for 2 years and 6 months later realize it wasn’t ideal and have to ride it out, but the one thing that I don’t have to battle in the decision making process is that feeling of permanence. That feeling if I make the wrong decision, I am going to have to live with it forever! Or at the very least, what feels like forever. For some, this feeling that you’ll only get to make the decision once, and thus it needs to be perfect, can be paralyzing.
Very recently, I was reading some quotes and stories about Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon who just announced he would be stepping down as CEO, but remaining involved as Chairman of the company’s board of directors. One particular story stuck out as he discussed “one-way” and “two-way door” decisions. The two-way door decision being those that you can walk right back through to where you were should you not like what you see. These decisions do not deserve the scrutiny of the one-way door decision and should be made quickly and almost effortlessly. My message for today’s post is that in life there are several decisions that can feel like a one-way door when in reality, there is the opportunity to turn around and walk back out.
One of the most common is buying your first home. The weight of the purchase and the large amounts of money in play bring with them a gravity, and rightfully so. In the end though, that house could be put back on the market 6 months later and although you would most likely have lost money on the deal, the door was not shut to you, it just required a steeper toll to get back through it. This same deliberation can be found with what car to buy, what job to take and for some, what outfit to throw on in the morning. Many of life’s decisions are not forever, and so we should try our best to not let that feeling of permanence and the need to optimize for every scenario prevent us from making the decision and moving forward.
As I now put these thoughts on paper, I think I’ll just stick with my current space and save the 23 hours of time, research and energy for a decision that may not let me back out the door so easily.
Happy Friday! Stay healthy and please be safe!