Fifty years ago in Albion, Michigan, my friend Harry (who I met at a local bar) asked me to move in with him and share the rent on a farmhouse 10 miles north of town, out in the country. It meant moving out of my small inexpensive and comfortable apartment in town. I convinced John, a friend who was an engineer like me, to join us.

The move was a major change after growing up in Pittsburgh and then living on busy Michigan Avenue in Albion. In the country, I had trouble sleeping initially because it was so quiet. All I could hear was the sound of frogs, toads, and crickets. Occasionally a vehicle would drive down the dirt road in front of the farmhouse.

Harry was a nice guy, a good friend and a terrible roommate. After traveling all week, I came home Friday night to a house without a clean dish. Harry’s cat would walk across the dirty dishes in the sink. The food I bought was gone. John and I gave Harry money for the light bill. Occasionally we found the house dark with the power shut off. Harry had not paid the bill. Our house came with a sizable yard. It was our responsibility to cut the grass.

Andy Andrews, entertainer, motivational speaker, and author said, “We don’t always make right decisions. But we can make decisions and then make them right.”

There was a good-looking young lady who lived next door to us. I noticed her one day when she was cutting her lawn. When I cut our lawn, I started cutting part of hers to help her out since we both had large yards. After doing this a few of times she came out to thank me. We talked and I got up the courage to ask her out. She accepted. The rest is history. Lynnda and I have been married for 49 years this month. Harry was best man at our wedding.

I didn’t like Harry as a roommate. I didn’t like cutting grass on my infrequent days off. It turned out both were opportunities to meet the person who turned out to be the love of my life. My “bad decision” became one of the best decisions of my life.

Lynnda and I have friends around the world. Some of our friends in places like India and Pakistan had arranged marriages by their parents. This is common in these countries. Our friends weren’t forced to marry. It was still their choice. They all had a least one date with their proposed spouse. These couples told us they weren’t in love when they married. Love grew between them as their relationship matured. All have children and have been happily married for decades. They all made decisions and then made them right.

Most couples in the USA are “in love” when they marry. Statistics show half of U.S. marriages end in divorce. Of those who stay together 40% are unhappy. These couples stay together for assorted reasons like children. Whether arranged or not, couples make a major decision when they choose to marry. They can also choose to work together and make their decision right.

In business many times we don’t have all the information we would like before making a decision. Leaders who choose not to decide or are slow to make decisions can hurt their organizations by missing opportunities. In my corporate life, one large company I worked for sometimes took over a year to make major decisions. I would suggest an idea with justification based on data. Six months later they wanted more data or revised data.

By the time corporate made the decision it was usually too late because the competition had already acted. When I went to work for the competition, I learned their secret to success was to act quickly if the data made sense. They didn’t always make the right decision initially. The CEO and his team were

exceptionally good at adjusting to make decisions right. They were fun to work for and did well financially.

As more information comes available leaders need to be able to be able to change and adjust.

The Germans are a good example. Faced with the loss of natural gas from Russia and the limited ability of the USA to replace most of that supply, the Germans turned back to coal. They fired up shut down coal fired power plants and even dismantled a wind farm to mine the coal beneath it. (Chemical Week- September 2023)

This week Lynnda and I went to Disney World with our youngest son and his family. At the Animal Kingdom we always do the safari ride. The ride is through an “African savanna” where most of the animals like giraffes, zebras and even rhinoceroses roam free. We had rhinos and an ostrich block the road on our ride and had to wait until they moved. Disney talks about conservation and the importance to protect wildlife habitat. This ride talked about poaching for years that was killing animals. The focus changed.

Now it tells how wildlife habitat in Africa is disappearing because companies are mining rare earth metals required in electronics, electric vehicles, and wind turbines. To have EVs, African wildlife like elephants and rhinos are dying. We can help by recycling our electronic products.

Leaders must not ignore the global results of their decisions and understand how to make their decisions right. We saw a creative idea at our resort. They cut the grass on the golf course with electric solar powered robot lawn mowers like the circle vacuums we have in our home. These mowers are pollution free, quiet, don’t require a human operator and can work at night while golfers sleep.

In relationships, business and government, decision making is essential. Leaders don’t always have the information to make the best decisions. Great leaders understand they don’t need to make perfect decisions. Make the decision and work to make it right.

Greg Kozera, gkozera@shalecrescentusa.com, is the director of marketing and sales for Shale Crescent USA, www.shalecrescentusa.com. He is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and over 40 years’ experience in the energy industry. He is a professional speaker and author of four books and numerous published articles.