Originally published by Michael Wheeler on LinkedIn: Are you ready to burn some bridges?
My colleague Mihir Desai warns that maximizing your options can be downright dangerous—especially when it comes to managing your career.
Yes, when you’re fresh out of college, a consulting job will expand your horizons by exposing you to a range of industries and functions. After that, maybe getting an MBA or some other credential will qualify you for new opportunities.
But Mihir believes—strongly—that while increasing your options can be beneficial for a time, there comes a point for making a decision and committing to it. He fears that for too many people “acquiring options becomes habitual.” They never take the plunge and pursue their real dreams.
Given his views about the importance of taking personal action, you might guess that Mihir is a psychologist by training. But no, his doctorate is in political economy. Much of his advice stems from his experience teaching finance to thousands of business and law school students.
In his new book, The Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Reward, Mihir makes a thought-provoking argument that concepts from his domain apply to how we should lead our professional and personal lives.
At first blush, that may seem like a curious idea. Even more startling is how he justifies it. Instead of using graphs and numbers, Mihir draws on examples from literature and popular culture—everything from Jane Austen and Herman Melville to Kanye West, Mel Brooks, and The Simpsons. (If you’re skeptical about such connections, check out his quiz posted by PBS NewsHour about famous artists and writers who were also bankers or entrepreneurs.)
I’m intrigued by Mihir’s insights, especially those that relate to my field of negotiation. And many of them do, since finance is fundamentally transactional. Investment requires parties on both sides of the table to weigh the benefits and costs of proposed terms. For example, a person seeking funds for a start-up has to balance the plus of securing resources on the one hand, against the minus of taking on specified obligations on the other. In turn, the investor must calculate the upside of hoped-for gain against the downside of possible loss. A deal is made—and value is created—only if each party regards the outcome as superior to what they could do or get elsewhere.
Back to career choices and optionality. Several years ago I wote a post here about a person who was earning $3,000,000 a year, but who confessed to a friend, “I hate my life.” He dragged himself to work that to him was both stressful and boring. He no longer embraced the mission of his firm. Still, with mortgages on his luxury co-op and beach house, plus private school tuitions, he felt he couldn’t afford to quit.