My Process For Making Huge Decisions Ep 353

In this episode of the podcast, Akshamozi, owner of acquisition.com, delves into the critical nature of decision-making, particularly for life-altering choices with irreversible consequences. He emphasizes the importance of creating the right environment for decision-making, which includes being well-rested, well-fed, and emotionally detached from the outcome. Akshamozi highlights the influence of brain chemistry on our decisions and the need to mitigate emotional impact to make rational choices. He also discusses the dangers of confirmation and conviction biases that can skew judgment. Additionally, he urges listeners to review the podcast to help more entrepreneurs succeed.

• Akshamozi has been faced with decisions impacting his personal net worth significantly.
• He emphasizes the importance of decisions in life, equating them to the potential for dramatic change, both positive and negative.
• Decisions are likened to train track splits, determining the direction of one's life.
• The focus is on the environment for decision-making rather than the process itself.
• Akshamozi encountered a challenging decision that took twelve months to resolve due to unchanging information and fluctuating outcomes.
• He warns that inconsistent decision outcomes are a sign of potential poor decision-making.
• Akshamozi suggests using his decision-making framework for life's most critical decisions.

"In the past nine months, I've had to make a number of decisions that had a nine figure ramification on my personal net worth." This quote highlights the high stakes involved in Akshamozi's recent decision-making, with significant financial implications.

"We're one decision away from changing our life forever, right?" Akshamozi stresses the profound impact that a single decision can have on an individual's life trajectory.

"So decisions are the wellspring of life, or at least the train track splits of where we're going to end up, all right?" This metaphor illustrates the pivotal role of decisions in determining the future path of a person's life.

"And so learning to make the decisions is an important concept." Akshamozi underscores the importance of learning effective decision-making as a critical life skill.

"One of the difficulties that I was having is that the information that I had was not changing. And yet my decision of which way to go continued to falter." The quote reveals the challenge Akshamozi faced with a particular decision due to static information but fluctuating decision outcomes.

"I would say that you should find and use this process for the most important decisions you make in your life." Akshamozi advises that his decision-making framework should be reserved for the most significant decisions one encounters.

• Akshamozi suggests that the environment in which decisions are made is crucial to the outcome.
• He experienced frustration due to a lack of new information, leading to indecision.
• The decision-making environment is critical when the data remains constant, but decisions waver.
• Akshamozi points out that fluctuating decisions based on the same information are indicative of a potential mistake.
• He clarifies that his advice is tailored to major life decisions, not all decisions.

"But believe it or not, for this video, what I want to focus on is actually the environment under which to make the decision, all right?" Akshamozi is shifting the focus from the decision-making process to the conditions under which decisions are made, emphasizing their importance.

"And so during this process, one of the things that was very frustrating for me, and this decision took me about twelve months to make." This quote describes Akshamozi's personal experience of frustration during a prolonged decision-making process.

"And yet at different days, I would have different outcomes, which to me is big red flag danger alert in terms of a leading indicator of a bad decision." Akshamozi identifies inconsistent decision-making as a warning sign of potential error.

• Akshamozi believes that certain decisions have a profound impact on one's life.
• He lists examples of major life decisions such as marriage, living location, career, and strategic business changes.
• These decisions require careful consideration and possibly a different approach than everyday decisions.

"Who are you going to marry? Where are you going to live? What are you going to work on?" Akshamozi provides examples of critical life decisions that demand a considered decision-making process.

"Those are the decision. Are we going to make this big strategic change in our business?" This question adds to the list of significant decisions, including major business strategy shifts, that warrant a meticulous decision-making approach.

• Irreversible decisions with downstream consequences require more time for analysis.
• Rushed decisions are prone to mistakes; hence, slowing down is crucial.

Irreversible decisions. And that's the key for me, is that if a decision is irreversible, comma, and has downstream consequences, then those are the ones that I take more time to analyze.

This quote emphasizes the significance of careful deliberation when facing choices that cannot be undone and will have long-term effects.

• Brain chemistry, specifically levels of dopamine and serotonin, influences decision-making.
• Recognizing the emotional aspect of decision-making is essential to maintain control.

One of the key pieces of how we decide is the brain chemistry that is going on. So whether you have lots of dopamine, lots of serotonin that are circling around in your brain will ultimately affect how you make decisions.

This quote highlights the role of neurotransmitters in the decision-making process, suggesting that our brain chemistry can sway our choices.

• Emotions are integral to decision-making, even when we believe we are being rational.
• Acknowledging emotional influence is necessary to avoid being 'lost' in decision-making.

Believe it or not, we are 100% emotional decision makers. The thing is, what we want to do is control the extent to which the emotions control our decisions.

This quote presents the idea that all decisions are emotionally driven and managing the influence of emotions is key to better decision-making.

• Recognizing when one is feeling emotional is the first step in managing decision-making.
• Emotions can slow down decision-making, which can be beneficial to avoid errors.

So what you can do is first identify when you are feeling emotional. And a lot of guys feel like this is like a foo foo term. If you're angry, it's emotional. If you're insecure, that's emotional.

The speaker is suggesting that identifying and acknowledging one's emotions is crucial to understanding their impact on decision-making.

• Emotions decrease the speed of decision-making.
• A slower decision-making process can help prevent mistakes.

If you have emotions, it decreases the speed with which you make decisions. And mistakes love a rushed decision.

This quote implies that emotions serve as a natural brake on decision-making speed, which can help in avoiding rushed and potentially flawed decisions.

• The environment and cognitive biases play a role in decision-making.
• Confirmation bias and conviction bias are two biases that can distort rational decision-making.

You have two biases that you have to fight against. One is confirmation bias, which is your emotional soup in your brain is going to say, this is what I want because this is how I feel safe. Then your logical brain will search out reasons or data to support that thing.

The speaker is explaining how confirmation bias can lead us to seek out information that supports our pre-existing emotions or beliefs, rather than objectively assessing the situation.

• Conviction bias can lead to self-deception to protect ego and desired outcomes.
• Belief in a positive outcome does not increase its likelihood of occurring.

The more you believe in it or the more you want the positive outcome to occur, the more you will purposefully blind yourself because you want to save your ego and how you feel about yourself, because it makes you feel good to think about this positive outcome, but it does not affect the percentage likelihood that it actually occurs in the real world.

This quote addresses how conviction bias can cause individuals to ignore reality in favor of what makes them feel good, without changing the actual chances of the desired outcome happening.

• Adequate rest and nutrition are crucial for clear-headed decision-making.
• Emotional states can significantly impact one's ability to make rational decisions.
• Ensuring well-being before making decisions can lead to better outcomes.

"Number one is that I make sure that I am well rested when I make the decision."

This quote emphasizes the importance of being well-rested before making decisions, suggesting that good sleep quality can lead to clearer thinking.

"Number two is to be well fed."

Speaker A highlights the role of nutrition in decision-making, explaining that proper food intake can elevate mood-regulating neurotransmitters and increase stress tolerance.

"Your body interprets stress, both physical and emotional, the same way. It's a cortisol response."

The speaker is drawing a connection between eating and stress management, explaining that eating can help cope with stress because the body's response to stress is the same, whether it is physical or emotional.

"We're trying to decrease the anxieties and the stressors and the noise that normally will confound the decision making process because they'll start triggering emotions that will then force you to start finding and nitpicking different data points to then make a supposedly rational decision that is wrong."

Speaker A explains that by reducing stress and anxiety through self-care, one can avoid the emotional triggers that lead to irrational decision-making and protect the ego instead of serving long-term interests.

• The host does not run ads or sell products, relying on audience support to spread the word.
• Encourages listeners to leave a review to help more entrepreneurs.

"Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this, and I don't sell anything."

Speaker D clarifies that the podcast operates without ads or product sales, implying a reliance on audience engagement for support.

"The only ask that I can ever have of you guys is that you help me spread the word so we can help more entrepreneurs make more money, feed their families, make better products, and have better experiences for their employees and customers."

The host requests that listeners share the podcast to achieve a broader impact on the entrepreneurial community.

"So the single thing that I ask you to do is you can just leave a review."

Speaker A reiterates the host's request, emphasizing the importance of reviews in supporting the podcast's mission.

"It would mean the absolute world to me, and more importantly, it may change the world for someone else."

Speaker D expresses the significant value of audience reviews, not only for personal gratification but also for the potential positive impact on others.

• The physical environment can influence decisions due to emotional anchors.
• Removing oneself from the usual environment can help minimize external influences on the decision-making process.
• Changing the environment is a strategy to achieve a clearer mindset for rational decisions.

And because those spaces have anchors in your mind that you have made decisions in the past, you have emotional occurrences that have happened in the room or at the desk that you work at, right?

This quote emphasizes the psychological impact that familiar environments have on our decision-making due to past experiences and emotions tied to those spaces.

• Abundance is defined as having everything one needs, implying no further needs.
• Making decisions from a standpoint of needing nothing promotes rationality.
• Recognizing that one already has enough can reduce the emotional weight of a decision.

And so the definition of abundance is having everything you need, which the corollary or the reverse of that is to need nothing else is to have enough.

The quote explains the concept of abundance, which is central to making decisions without the pressure of unmet needs, thereby fostering a more rational approach.

• The four steps include rest, eating, separating from normal space, and operating from a place of needing nothing.
• These steps are designed to reduce emotional influence on decisions.
• Following these steps may allow for a clearer, more rational perspective.

Number one, rest. Number two, eat. Number three, separate. Number four, operate from a place of needing nothing.

This quote lists the four practical steps that the speaker suggests to create an optimal state for rational decision-making.

• Emotions can strongly influence decisions, often negatively.
• The goal is to reduce, not eliminate, emotional influence to allow rationality to lead.
• A more rational approach to decision-making can lead to an easier life.

They still will, but ideally, secondarily so, or at a lower percentage of influence.

This quote acknowledges that emotions will always play a role in decision-making but suggests that their influence should be secondary to rational thought.

• Akshamozi reflects on past decisions made emotionally that had negative consequences.
• He emphasizes the importance of avoiding hasty, irreversible decisions based on strong emotions.

A lot of the decisions I made in my past that were based on emotions ended up really biting me in the ass, especially when I had lots of emotions and I acted really quickly in large ways, against irreversible decisions.

Akshamozi shares personal experiences to illustrate the pitfalls of emotional decision-making, highlighting the long-term impact of such choices.

• The inversion process involves considering how one would make a terrible decision and then doing the opposite.
• This process helps identify factors that contribute to poor decision-making and how to avoid them.

How would I make a terrible decision? I wouldn't be well rested. I'd be hungry. I would be rushed.

Akshamozi uses the inversion process to outline conditions that lead to poor decisions, suggesting that avoiding these states can improve decision quality.