Customer Reviews

What do I do Now? : Dr. Foster's 30 Laws of Great Decision Making

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Personal decision-making is something that few study, and even fewer work on to systematically improve upon their processes and practices. This book will allow anyone to become aware of weaknesses in their decision-making, and remedy those flaws. It will be especially valuable to those considering questions like who to marry and when, which career or job to choose, residential location, whether to have children or not, leaving a relationship, saving and investing money, handling health issues, assisting children with their problems, and the focus of your retirement.

Although I have had a great deal of formal decision-making training, I found that it did not cover many of the areas of advice here. So even if you think you know this subject, I suggest that you take a look at this book. Think of this book as a compendium of common sense that may not occur to you while you wrestle with an important decision.

Dr. Foster is a Ph.D. and M.B.A. so he has a sense of the theoretical as well as the practical. His 30 laws were divined through a 12 year study where the decisions of a few dozen people were tracked. Then the group was divided into two, based on the good or bad quality of the decisions. Those things more often done by the "good" decision makers became the basis of the laws.

Although the group is too small to be representative of the whole population, it is certainly an improvement over intuiting the ideas in the absence of any data. No data or analysis of these cases are provided, so you cannot see how strongly the observations held for yourself. That is the key limitation of the book, from my point of view.

I would normally be skeptical of such poorly documented advice, based on a "study" but the answers fit my intuition pretty well. So I am awarding five stars based on my personal reaction to the laws, rather than to the "study" itself.

In making a decision, you are encouraged to apply all 30 laws . . . not to look just for the laws that apply. You will find that some laws seem to conflict with others. I interpreted this as trying to help you acquire a more balanced perspective. Consider, for example, law #2 (Don't Decide Until You're Ready) which could come into conflict with law #4 (Choose It or Lose It) which points out that you cannot let too much time pass. In this case, the author suggests that the first 10 laws are in order of importance, and those that rank more highly should outweigh the lower ones. So you should take whatever time you need, keeping in mind that you don't want to let so much time pass that you make the decision through inaction. You'll just have to resolve these conflicts for yourself, as best you can. People will differ on how they do that.

Many such books are no more than a list of 30 laws, with some examples given. I was pleased to see that almost every law also had detail behind it that would help you apply that law properly. For example, law #7 (Turn Big Decisions into a Series of Little Decision Steps) contained information to help you identify smaller steps and to move expeditiously through them. Each law also had one or more interesting personal examples, presumably drawn from the "study" that led to the laws.

All of the laws fit into one of three principles:

"(1) Prudence is a virtue.

(2) Action is better than inaction.

(3) Decisions exist to make things wonderful."

Perhaps the best advice in the book is to "care about making a good choice." The book encourages you to proceed confidently. "Right now you have everything you need to make good decisions."

Here are some of my favorites among the laws:

"Focus on the Most Important Thing."

"Look for All the Good Things That Can Happen."

"You Always Have Better Options."

"Get What You Need To Feel Safe."

"Never Let a Lower Priority Outweigh a Higher Priority."

"Know Your Achilles' Heel."

"Make Yourself Proud."

"Know What's Real."

"Keep an Open Mind."

"Take Care of the Basics."

"Some of the Things You 'Know' Are Wrong."

"You Don't Have to Run from Risk."

For the most part, this book is so qualitative that it will not focus you enough for decisions that can benefit from calculations. I suggest you take a look at "Smart Choices" to get ideas for quantifying some of these important personal decisions. That book contains some excellent examples of how to do this for issues like selecting a residence.

After you have laid out your decision and come to a tentative conclusion, I suggest that you sleep on it before making your final step. Many times, I've found that a much improved thought emerges from the delay of one more night.

May your life be filled with great decisions!

I also suggest that you share this book with anyone you know who has difficulty with decisions. That approach can reduce the amount of problems you will have to help others resolve in the future.

Saw the book on the shelf and picked it up, glanced at the back and inside back cover and then a few chapters. I was hooked.

This is an excellent book for explaining why we make decisions and how we can learn to make better decisions and very timely here in the SF bay area of California where there are lay offs in high tech and people are trying to decide to stay in CA or move and all the other issues we deal with on a day to day basis.

The Chapters that are really helping me are Law#10 Do What You Really Want,#11 If It Ain't Simple, It Ain't Gonna Work, #12 Have a Hopeful heart and a Cautious Head, #28 You Don't Have to Run from Risk and #29 Following Through Makes Decisions Wonderful.

This is a GREAT book for those of us who are at a fork in the road and it looks like a real fork with 3-5 choices. Or those of us who feel like the rope in a tug a war game and are feeling the rope burn. This is why I got the book, because I needed some sound proven (important word) advise that would help be choose the right branch or path in the road and the right way to avoid more rope burn.

On page 111 he says "You don't just make a decision. You live a decision" which is wise advise. And that "You have to ask yourself what you would want if none of the people in your life were in the picture". In Chapter or Law 11 (excuse the bad English in the title. English teachers will wince) he asks "Are you making things more complicated than they need to be?"

The author Dr Charles Foster really knows, appreciates and practices the KISS mode of life. Keep It Simple Silly. Great book and well worth the money and time. And a book that you will actually use a great deal and should have on your book shelf. Buy a copy for your local library as well. Share the wisdom with others.

Every time I pick the book up and re-read it I learn something I had missed the times before. This is a sign that a book has WISDOM!

The descriptions and reviews on this page refer to the printed book, not the ebook. This ebook consists simply of a brief 7-8 synopsis of 10 of the 30 laws, along with a link to the publishers website, and an ad to buy the full book. To make matters worse, amazon.com is charging $2.00 above retail price.

There is very little more information in the ebook than is in the summaries on this page. Don't waste your money on what is essentially a $5.00 advertisement for the printed book. Buy the printed edition insead.

It's about time someone wrote a book on this topic. Is the book revolutionary or going to create a great upheaval? Of course not. Is it good sound, sensible advice? You bet!! Whether one is a CEO, parent, child, laborer,secretary, politician, professional, etc., we are faced with daily decisions ranging in magnitude from 0 to 8.0 on the Richter Scale. From what to do for dinner to what college to attend? From what to wear to do I take this new job and move my family? It's amazing though how difficult it can be sometimes to make a decision. For those involved in selling anything,you know first hand what a hurdle it can be to get someone to decide. For no other reason than to provide yourself with greater personal insight, make the decision to buy and read this book.

I've always had a hard time making decisions. In fact I would research the heck out of everything in order to make one measly decision. I've always been happy with what I decided on, but I've alway went with there's always something better. Well it got so bad that I've got to the point of enjoying the research of something vs. going straight to the decision making....what a waste of time. What do I do Now? is a great life advice book but more importantly outlines what one considers when making a decision. What's great about this book is that instead of slowly getting to each criteria through researching, you go straight to it and make a decision quickly. I don't feel guilty for not able to make a decision either. It used to be that I thought I was too wishy washy to make one but in reality did not have enough info. to make a decision. The book helps in that it tells you at what step you are in a decision process. I'm really really glad I read this book!

Danny-Dallas, Texas

I saw the average star rating and didn't look further - I knew this was the book I wanted. If I had bothered to read the first review I would have been warned about what I fell for. This IS NOT the book. It's a few pages that barely cover any information at all, just an overview of his first 10 principles.

Can a simple decision change our lives permanently for the better? Yes.

When life hands us struggles or challenges or problems (or whatever euphemism you use to talk about when life gets hard), decision-making sometimes seems cloudy. Recently I read a thought-provoking book on decision-making called "What Do I Do Now?" by Dr. Charles Foster. In it, he lays out 30 laws of good decision-making he's developed from his over 14 years of studies with tons of participants.

Maybe this sounds a little dry, but believe me - it's anything but dry. Better decisions about our lives and activities can have resounding results capable of creating great joy, opportunity, prosperity and peace in our lives.

Just as a little taste of what's in there, I'll share some of my notes:

Law #1 - Focus on the most important thing.

(Wow, there's a great rule. Well, duh! I've heard this before. Yada, yada, yada! But wait... then Dr. Foster reveals...)

How do you recognize the most important thing?
* It's something that will make your life wonderful. (Oh, yeah. I forgot that decisions can do that. Good point.)
* Or it's something that will enable you to take care of your most important responsibility. (Yeah, when that's taken care of, I'll breathe easier. Sounds sensible.)
* Or it's something that will make it possible for you to solve your biggest problem. (Oh, yeah. That's right. Decision-making is about solving problems, not drowning in ambivalence.)
* Or it's something that will address one huge, stubborn fact you've been refusing to accept. (Hey, buddy, what are you implying? That my lack of focus on making good decisions and taking action might be a problem for me? Errr, well, I kinda see your point.)
* Or it's something that fits who you really are. (You mean it's OK for me to value myself as highly as I value others? That if I do what the Big Guy put me here to do, that might be a great decision? Maybe I should do more to fulfill my purpose. And maybe that would actually make me happier. What a concept!)

Law #2 - Don't Decide Until You're Ready
(I didn't have a problem with this concept. I take my dear sweet time already. I need to think more about his Law #4 - Choose It or Lose It.)

Law #3 - Look for all the good things that can happen.
(In the middle of struggle, we often fail to see the great things that can come of making good decisions. If we don't yield to the pressures of the moment, we can list out all the great things that can happen from making a good decision. Just so you'll start to think about what GOOD things can happen, the good doctor lays out...)

Four Flavors of Good Things That Can Happen
1. You get more of what you were hoping for.
2. You get something from them that you never imagined you'd get.
3. The outcome you were looking for might be much more likely to happen than you realized.
4. The outcome comes with a smaller price tag than you thought.

(I think you're getting the idea here. Better decisions lead to better outcomes - often unforseeably better.)

I hope the notes above give you some enjoyable food for thought. There are 26 other great thought-provoking, decision-spurring laws in the book. This guy spent the last 14 years studying this stuff and his ideas are elegantly simple and clear. Some may seem obvious but believe me - this guy makes each point alive with possibilities and how-to's.

In closing, let me just remind you of Law #8.

YOU ALWAYS HAVE BETTER OPTIONS.

Don't let yourself be mired in the challenges of life. You can choose the answers you need, the answers that make sense for you. I hope you choose something that will make your life wonderful today.

I can't decide whether or not to read this book. There are so many other books to choose from, and I keep putting off the decision. People tell me this is a good book, and although I appreciate the opinions of others, I'm uneasy making the decision. I feel frozen on the spot. I give the book 3 stars, since it's the middle score, and saves me having to make a decision either way.