10 Laws of Decision Making
tips for young men
Here are some laws to abide by. Laws are meant to be bent and broken from time to time, but break these consistently and you’ll pay a hefty price.
1. Law of Attrition
As a man you should realize that most people will make nothing but poor decisions. They will do this over and over throughout their life. If you want proof of this, simply look at the statistics for retirement savings:
the average (US) person who is 55+ years old only has $150K in savings.1
This amount is less than what you should have saved during your 20s.
Let’s use this law to our advantage: Knowing that the vast majority simply won’t make it, the people who have succeeded will stand out like sore thumbs.
Ignore the unhappy rich folk (there are a lot) and simply spend some time finding happy and stress free rich people.
While everyone will say “these people are hard to find”… it’s true, but nothing good is easy. In any case, those people stand out so are relatively easier to find.
Use the law of attrition to help you find mentors that will take you down the correct path. If they didn’t drop off the radar, they can help you remain on the radar as well.
2. Law of Momentum
Physics applies to decision making as well: Objects in motion stay in motion.
This is:
why rich people get richer
why responsibility continues to go to intelligent decision makers
If you make a smart decision people give you more of them to make, then they introduce you to other people as a “smart guy to know”.
This will repeat over and over again. Eventually you won’t have time to help everyone. Now you’ve won.
There is a clear undertone to this law. If you make smart decisions when young you will see a snowball effect that will gain traction over a long period of time.
The reverse is also true. Bad decisions when young will ripple over the next 20+ years.
3. Law of Association
Based on your phone people will judge your worth.
Sounds simple doesn’t it?
It is true.
If you can simply spend time around high worth individuals, people will assume you are of high worth as well.
Many of our readers are bright, so let’s combined Law 2 with Law 3.
If you consistently spend time with wealthy people and consistently show them you make good decisions… they are going to introduce you to more high worth individuals.
Before you make a decision ask yourself:
what type of people will I be spending my time with?
If the answer is of low quality, probably best to move on.
4. Law of Negativity
There is no reason to spend time with unhappy and unlucky people. Apply this to your life.
The law of negativity works in conjunction with all three laws stacked above.
You are likely to quit (attrition)
You are likely to continue on a downward spiral (momentum)
You will attract other miserable people because misery loves company (association).
Force yourself to be positive in every environment since the alternative always leads to poorer results. If you are truly in a wasteland, the answer is to leave.
5. Law of Similarity
People surround themselves with other like-minded individuals. Use this to meet successful people.
Once you are surrounded by successful people you should adopt their line of thinking, dress code, vocabulary and tone of voice.
This sounds like the Law of Association but it’s not. Similarity is looking like someone, association is being next to them.
6. Law of Risk
Every single decision you make is going to have risk associated with it. There is no such thing as risk free.
Therefore you should always make the best risk adjusted decision that you can possibly make.
Make a list of the downsides of the decision and balance them with the upsides of the position.
It will become increasingly clear if it makes sense once you appropriately assess the risks.
A simple Wall Street example? If you have to choose between a major investment bank or an unknown investment bank, there are practically no reasons to choose the unknown bank.
7. Law of Pain
Generally speaking, the path with the least amount of suffering is the wrong decision.
This law becomes more fluid as you get older since you’re no longer building your life, BUT when you are young if you choose the easier path you are likely giving up decades of your life. This is not an exaggeration.
The last thing you want to do is tell someone a decade older than you that you “were not willing to work hard”. This will be a nail in the coffin.
8. Law of Common Sense
These days, this law is being overlooked.
“Does this make sense?”
Ask yourself every single time.
“Does this make sense?”
Before getting into health, the belief was that a calorie was a calorie.
While this may be the case for weight loss it makes no sense for health.
9. Law of Fairness
In short, life is generally fair but not equal.
What does this mean?
If you continue to generate value over a long duration you’ll likely improve in your given task.
Life however, is not equal. There are people with trust funds, there are people with better genetics, therefore people are never going to be equal.
The best you can do is remember that life is generally fair - the more you add the more you get.
10. Law of Opportunity Cost
At the end of the day, every decision you make will impact another decision. There is no way around this. There is no way to have your cake and eat it too.
The goal is to simply give yourself as many options as possible.
When you don’t know what to do? Choose the path that gives you more opportunities.
Conclusion
You can feel free to break a lot of these laws but… it will likely cost you millions of dollars, better friends and an improved life over the long-term. If you remember these laws, you’ll likely become a significantly better decision maker.
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