Make Wealth Blog

One of the hardest things in the life of a project or business is knowing when it is time to give up. No one likes to feel like a failure, and often to quit seems like a failure. Neither is it a good idea to continue pouring resources of energy and time into a business or project that is going nowhere. You need to understand what your limits are and what the benefits are for various options which might be available to you. It is not failure to recognize boundaries and to honor those boundaries. Wearing your self out in pursuit of an unreachable goal is not healthy or productive.

An helpful exercise to go through personally or with the help of an analyst or counselor is a SWOT analysis. If you can honestly assess the situation yourself, the SWOT analysis can be done by yourself, but it is far more effective to work through with the help of someone else. The counselor may be able to see patterns that you are unable to see because you are too close to the situation.

SWOT acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. During the course of the review, you list the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of your current situation. Just writing down everything you can think of within the four categories is sometimes enough to assist in making a decision.

Does the business or project have strengths or positive features? Are there strengths which you or your employees or co-workers are gaining or giving? How about weaknesses? To be considering giving up is not a weakness; it may be strength to recognize that reaching a final goal may not necessarily be the best path to follow.

The example of an expedition to climb Mt Everest which resulted in a number of deaths and the decision to give up the ascent was not a failure. The courage to recognize when it was strength to turn down the mountain and save the remaining lives meant a tremendous victory personally for the climbers who returned.

There is no doubt that these climbers gave the ascent all of their physical strength and doubtless their emotional strength as well, but the important thing to remember is that the climbers succeeded even though they did not reach the top of the mountain.

When you complete the process of listing the four categories above, review the list. Does one have far fewer items on it than others? If so, why is that? Is there something in each category? Did you expect the results you got? If another person who is familiar with your situation were to do the analysis, would he get the same results as you did?

By completing an exercise such as the SWOT analysis, you cannot be accused of giving up too easily. You’ve used all available tools to arrive at fact and used those facts in determining the best course of action. If that decision is to move on to something else, you will know it is by choice, rather than having the decision ripped out of your hands. Use the opportunity to glean information about the future, after all, this is an experience that you will not want to repeat, so the lessons that can be learned from giving up should be ones that will stand you in good stead for the future.

The process by which a person chooses a certain path over another is called decision-making. It is a cognitive process resulting to a final choice. Decision-making is very much a part of life. If a person wants to take stock of his life and become fully responsible for his own happiness then a person must make his own life decisions.

Just the same, in corporate situations or in the work life of a person, there are decisions that must always be made. Decisions in the work place can affect one’s work and the work of others. Some major decisions can make or break one’s career. A manager may decide which path to take that will either bring the company to greater heights or will bring it to the pitfalls of loss and lower productivity.

Decision-making often entails choosing one option over one or two other options based on the perceived value of each option. Some decisions are easy to make because the values of the options can be easily determined. There are, however, choices that are difficult to make because there seems to be no truly good option or the values of all the options seem equal. Let’s not even talk about making painful decisions that may not be beneficial at first but may bring about the best results in the long run.

People use different techniques to reach a decision. Some people make a list of advantages and disadvantages of each option to clearly see which choice have more disadvantages. In the work place, some people use the SWOT technique or the evaluation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Unimportant decisions can be made by flipping a coin or for others, by consulting astrologers, or referring to readings of the tarot cards, the zodiac signs and others. This type of decision-making process technically takes the choosing out of the person hands and leaves it to ‘signs’ or other forms of divination. Sometimes people use pure gut feel or intuition when making decisions. This is not to say that the result is often unintelligent because some people have very good intuitions.

Some decisions require more attention and caution such as company mergers and other business matters. These decisions require thorough analysis and important data from auditors, accountants and advise from legal consultants. Sometimes the decision-making passes through several levels and needs the approval of several people. One key factor in being named to a high-post in the work place is by being a good decision maker. This means that a person is objective, sensible, level headed and decisive. Decisions are made at work almost daily and good decisions result to a better bottom line for the company. Teams and not just individuals may also make decisions. Often, decisions are made based on the majority votes. Those in higher positions or those who have power can make and also over-turn decisions.