FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL

Benjamin Franklin once said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” While he probably was not referring to a public relations crisis, this mentality can surely be applied to PR. Planning can make the difference between quickly stomping out a fire or going up in flame.

This may sound simplistic, but people who are resolute about being prosperous and successful, especially traders, ought to memorize this saying by heart. If one chooses to consult any trader making money consistently, he will surely explain that one only has only two choices, either to follow a well-written plan or risk the likelihood of inevitable failure.

An investment plan or written trading can be an additional benefit, as it makes you a part of the minority, which has successfully evaded a major roadblock, if not guaranteeing absolute success. The use of inefficient methods may delay the probability of your success, but not without skirting you in the right direction to chalk out and set up your course of work. The key to understanding this is carefully studying the various processes involved, how they work, and how to make them work most economically.

The Key to Avoid Disaster…

Effective decision making to avoid failures and maximize success is your key to a great career. Yet how can you ensure that your decision-making results in the right calls as opposed to decision disasters?

Step 1: List Career Decision-Making Criteria

Write out all the relevant and important attributes for your decision, meaning the key criteria you will use to make your choice. Do not get stuck in analysis paralysis by listing all possible criteria: try to limit yourself to 10 unless it is a truly complex decision. When picking an organization to work for, you can use criteria such as “expected salary,” “organizational culture,” “role fit,” “upward mobility,” and so on.

Brainstorm the categories, then put them into the web app so you can be guided through the process.

Step 2: Weigh the Attributes

Give weights to each of your attributes, from 1-10 on their importance to you (1 lowest importance, 10 highest). Make sure to use this step to evaluate honestly which of these criteria is more important to you.

Step 3: Rank It!

Rank each option that you are considering choosing on all the attributes in a decision matrix table, from 1-10 on how good they are (1-poor, 10-great).

Step 4: Check with Your Head

Check for potentially dangerous career judgment errors, especially ones resulting from paying too much attention to the gut. Look out for the 30 most dangerous judgment errors for decision making in professional life.

Pay particular attention to cognitive biases to which you might be prone personally. Play around with adjusting weights and rankings to address such errors.

Step 5: Red Flags

Decide what kind of red flags you will use to reconsider the decision if relevant new evidence emerges that would influence your rankings and/or weights. It is best to decide in advance what you would consider constituting important evidence.

Step 6: Choose and Commit

Make your choice and stick with it. This precommitment will help reduce feelings of anxiety and doubt and help you be happier.

It is more like planning the vehicle of your life with GPS to an unknown location. The route may be longer, but you know your destination. Planning is an ongoing process and is not a one-off process. Good planning results in good wealth management.