In Hell Yeah or No by Derek Sivers, Derek says there are always more than two options.
Let me give you an example:
You currently have a job. You have applied to another job and received it, except it’s halfway across the country in another city. Do you take the job or not?
In the picture I painted, there appear to only be two options. But there’s always more than two.
You could:
- Apply to more jobs (if you got one job offer, you’re likely to get another)
- Use the job offer to negotiate a higher salary or position on your current job
- Don’t take the job. Quit your current job. Start a new business.
- Don’t take the job. Start a new business while still working for your current employer. Quit once your new business makes 50% of your current income.
This works for all situations where you feel you only have ’N’ options.
How do I think of more options?
You’re faced with one or two options and you’re struggling to think of more. Here are a few strategies:
- You always have the status quo (do nothing) and do something completely insane as two options (as Derek suggests)
- You could take the two options (or one option) you have and break them down into ‘sub categories’ or ‘themes’. Then explore different options for these. For example, in the job example, employment could be a theme so you might explore different types of employment (freelancing, consulting, side hustle).
- You could take the option or options you have and figure out what you would do with a heck of a lot of money (the Croesus Strategy). Then, pare down until you land on something feasible. If you have the choice of taking one job or another job, but you had a million dollars, you might decide to write for a living instead. Which then begs the question, why not write for a living now?
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