Pros and Cons. Probably the most used method to decide between two different courses of action: Should I start a business or not? Should I move my sales in house or keep using independent sales reps. Should I quit my job to become a full time writer or keep writing on evenings and weekends.
In my last article, “Become a Better Risk Taker with This Simple Method” I wrote that you should attach accurate numbers to evaluate certain scenarios; it is better to do a cost benefit analysis for any decision you might face. I gave the example of using numbers to decide whether to get a master’s degree.
The results were pretty amazing. [ Spoiler Alert: it’s worth the cost and time to get a master’s degree. ] This was a pretty easy analysis. But sometimes, attaching costs and benefits to a decision don’t always work. Sometimes, emotional reasons dominate a list of pros and cons.
In this case, how do you properly analyze your decisions? How do you attach numbers to emotional feelings that might be a part of a big change you are contemplating?
Well, believe it or not, you can.
When most people put together a pro and con list, they draw two columns. One is labeled, Pros and the other is labeled, Cons. Then a list is made under each column of various things, many of them emotional. Using my previous example of whether or not to get your master’s degree, your list may look something like Fig 1:
Adding those reasons comes to three Pros and five Cons. By this measure, the Cons have it. But wait a minute. That analysis gives equal weight to everything on each list. And are they equally weighted? Should all of these reasons get equal footing? Maybe, for you, but probably not. Is a lifetime of increased earnings equal to spending $600 to apply to graduate schools? The cost/benefit analysis I previously did amounted to over a half million dollars of increased lifetime earnings. How do you compare that to an extra $600 now?
Let’s look at this another way. Let’s think in terms of a scale of 0 – 10. Attach a number between zero and ten of the importance of each one of these things, zero being not important at all to ten being extremely important,. Let’s re-do the list shown in Fig. 2:
The new totals are, 28 for the Pros and 16 for the Cons. The Pro position wins. If you can give an online review of your local restaurant, you can attach numbers of importance to your Pros and Cons.
This is an easy analysis to do for any decision in your life or business. You know what you place a bigger value on. Reflect that in your ratings. Maybe moving to another city is a deal breaker for you. Perhaps you have a husband with he has a great job and can’t move. You might have school-aged children that don’t want to change schools, or an elderly parent that needs you. In that case, you can limit your applications to a school that is in or near your city. Those are things that are important to reflect in your analysis.
Only you know what the most important items on your list are. Reflect that properly in your analysis and you will make a decision that you can live with and celebrate.
