What if there is no right decision?

My dad was telling me about one of the school principals he worked with back in the day.

This principal had a great philosophy on making hard decisions. He said that if a team of smart, committed people couldn’t reach a consensus within ten minutes there were probably good arguments on both sides and you may as well toss a coin. Both options were pretty equal. There wasn’t a clearly right and a clearly wrong answer.

I find this idea incredibly liberating. If both sides of a decision feel finely balanced, probably both are equally good and bad. There isn’t a right answer.

In the end I think not making a decision is worse than making the wrong decision. So if after thinking about something for ten minutes you’re still not sure, walk away. Sleep on it. And then if you’re still not sure, just pick something. Toss a coin. Make the decision and move on.