Some business decisions are difficult, not because you don’t know enough, but because there isn’t one obviously better choice.
Have you ever spent ages weighing up two options, only to find yourself no closer to making a decision?
You’ve considered the advantages and disadvantages.
You’ve thought about the possible outcomes.
You’ve probably asked other people what they’d do.
But you still can’t decide.
Perhaps the problem isn’t that you need more information.
Perhaps both options have genuine merit, and you’re trying to find a right answer that doesn’t exist.
And when that’s the case, having someone to think things through with can be particularly valuable.
Not to tell you which option to choose, but to help you work out which one makes sense for you.
Why Some Decisions Are So Difficult
In her TED Talk How to Make Hard Choices, philosopher Ruth Chang challenges the idea that every difficult decision must have a best answer.
She explains that some choices are hard exactly because each option offers something different and there isn’t a clear winner. One might be better in certain respects, while the other offers advantages that are equally important but difficult to compare.
Think about a business owner deciding whether to expand their business or concentrate on improving what they already have.
Expansion might bring new opportunities and greater revenue.
Consolidation might create more stability, reduce complexity and allow them to enjoy what they’ve built.
Neither is automatically better.
And no amount of research can necessarily tell you which is right for that particular business owner.
When The Safest Option Isn’t Necessarily The Right One
Chang describes choosing a career in law rather than philosophy, largely because law felt like the safer option.
She later realised it wasn’t the right fit for her.
I think there’s an important distinction here.
Choosing the safer option isn’t necessarily a mistake.
Sometimes protecting what you’ve built, maintaining stability or avoiding unnecessary risk is exactly the right decision.
But there’s a difference between making a considered choice because stability matters to you and choosing something simply because the alternative feels uncomfortable.
In business, that might mean continuing with a familiar way of working, putting off a change or choosing the option that requires the least disruption.
Not because you’ve decided it’s the best direction.
But because it feels easier than facing the uncertainty of something different.
And sometimes, that becomes Business Friction.
What Actually Matters To You?
Chang argues that when neither option is objectively better, we have an opportunity to decide what we stand for.
I think this is where her ideas become particularly relevant to business ownership.
We can spend so much time looking for external validation of our decisions.
What are other business owners doing?
What does the research suggest?
What would an expert recommend?
Those perspectives can be useful.
But they can’t always answer the most important question.
What matters to you, and what are you actually trying to achieve?
Two business owners facing exactly the same decision might reasonably choose different paths.
One might prioritise growth.
Another might prioritise flexibility.
Neither is necessarily wrong.
The decision needs to fit the person, their circumstances and the business they’re trying to build.
When There Isn’t An Obvious Right Answer
This is exactly where I see the value of being a Trusted Thinking Partner.
When there’s a clear answer, you may simply need the right information or expertise.
But when both options have merit, and the decision depends on your priorities, circumstances and ambitions, it’s a different kind of challenge.
You don’t necessarily need someone to give you the answer.
You need space to explore the decision properly.
Someone who can ask the questions you might not think to ask yourself.
Challenge assumptions.
Help you recognise which concerns are genuine and which might be driven by fear or familiarity.
And help you distinguish between what you feel you should do and what you actually want to achieve.
That’s often where clarity begins.
Not by removing the complexity of the decision, but by understanding what really matters within it.
The objective isn’t to take responsibility for the decision away from you.
It’s to help you make it with greater clarity and confidence.
You Don’t Always Need The Perfect Answer
Some decisions have a clear answer.
Others involve trade-offs, uncertainty and competing priorities.
The difficulty doesn’t necessarily mean you’re approaching them incorrectly.
And you don’t always need to keep searching until one option becomes obviously better.
Sometimes meaningful progress comes from understanding what matters, making a considered choice and committing to it.
Not because you can guarantee the outcome.
But because you’ve made a decision that fits what you’re trying to achieve.
When there’s no obvious right answer, perhaps the better question is: Which choice can I genuinely stand behind?