Erik: How are you learning to make better decisions?
Simon: Decision-making is a process. The question is what filters are you using to make decisions?
Are you making decisions based on the financial rewards? Are you making decisions based on
how easy the work will be? I remember in college, they would give you this book where they --all
the students would rate the classes and they would rate things like how easy the class
was and how much they liked the professor. And, you know, the first year, I picked all
my classes based on workload, and I picked everything a low workload, you know? And pretty
bored, didn't work very hard, which was fine, but nothing was dynamic, and nothing really
excited me, and I, thank goodness, learned that. And so the second year, I picked all
my classes by professor rating, regardless of the workload, so every class I had, I had
these dynamic amazing incredible human beings passing on their knowledge and you were excited
to work hard for them. And so again, the question is what are the filters we're using, and so
if you're only chasing the mighty dollar, then you'll have jobs that'll pay you a little
more than the last but are you enjoying yourself? And I talked to a guy recently who was in
a—he's in bad shape like he really hates his life and he's really depressed, and he
doesn't know what to do. And so we're going through all his old jobs, you know, and I
said, give me a job that you've loved, and he hadn't, every single job he's chosen out
of college, he picked because of the money, and if something offered him more somewhere
else, he took it. You know? Regardless. And the amazing thing is he plateaued because
if you're only chasing the result, if you're only chasing the thing that makes it easy,
right? Then eventually you will get bored, or they'll get bored of you, right? And you
plateau. In other words, chasing the almighty dollar, if that's your only thing, it eventually
flattens out, whereas if you're chasing the thing that excites you, the human beings to
be around, the work that excites you, the stuff that you know, you can get passionate
about, the irony is, is you'll actually make way, way more, right? Because you're excited
and they appreciate your excitement and they reward your excitement, and you're better
at your work because you wanna work harder and all of that stuff. You don't have the
strain to work harder. So decision-making is simply a matter of filters. And so I've
made decisions in my life that I would rather be happy than right, I'd rather do good than
get rich. And so the decisions I make put me in positions where when I leave any engagement,
when I leave any meeting, I feel that I've contributed, right? Rare are the times any
more where you walk around going, just think of the money, just think of the money, think
of the money, because it doesn't feel nice. And the experience I have I don't enjoy travelling
to them and I don't enjoy travelling home, where if I have an amazing experience, I'm
looking forward to getting there and I'm excited when I leave. So it's just decision—decision-making
is just a matter of what filters you use, and if you're good about keeping those filters
up and clear then make your decision. I don't judge anybody by how—if they choose to use
different filters, these are just the filters I choose to live my life. Not right or wrong,
just those are my decisions. That's my filter.