Daniel Pink offers a simple framework for tough decisions: ask what you'd tell a best friend, then do the right thing. He favors Mies van der Rohe's principle of less is more, doing fewer things well rather than spreading yourself thin.
Do the right thing. When a friend comes to us for advice, and it's a little morally dubious, we don't say, "Oh yeah, you should take the low road." Oh yeah, no one's going to care if you cheat. You say, "Hey, you know what? You should probably do the right thing." Use that advice on yourself. Finally, another corollary for this lesson about how to make a decision, right? The best way to make a decision is to ask yourself, what would you tell your best friend to do? And in many times, you would tell your best friend. And therefore yourself, less is more. Now, obviously, I didn't make that up. Mies van der Rohe did. Less is more. We advise others to do fewer things well, but we often don't take that advice ourselves. So the best way to make a decision, ask yourself, what would I tell my best friend to do? And in many cases, you know the answer immediately, and you know that you should do the right thing.
