The Negative Returns of Too Many Options
Don't live your life in a waiting game
Last Friday rolled around and I was in trouble. I was staring a weekend at the lake in the face and had yet to decide what my piece for the week would be.
I post my piece on Wednesday morning and usually, shortly after, or sometimes even before, I will know where I want to go with the following week's piece. The idea has already been populated.
However, this time that was not the case. I was struggling to determine where I wanted to go and what I even wanted to write about. My internal dialogue was an intense debate of the many topics I had in mind. Now, I was staring Friday night in the face having yet to decide what I wanted to write about. I began to sweat a little.
Typically, this wouldn’t be a problem, but I was spending all weekend at the lake so my freedom to write would be limited. I needed to put a pen to paper and at least have something to work with when I get back on Sunday night or we might be burning that midnight oil this week after work, something I did not wish to do.
It wasn’t for a lack of ideas, either. I simply could not decide what idea I felt the strongest about. What idea would perk my interest and satisfy my curiosity and pull the words right out of me. The piece just seemingly writing itself as the words just pour out of me.
I had so many options, a backlog of 50+ ideas. Too many options at that. I was reading and consuming everything I could trying to find the inspiration I so desperately needed. Usually, this isn’t an issue but this week, I simply could not decide.
Like, after a long day of work, you settle down for the night and open Netflix ready to watch a show and decompress. However, when you open Netflix and scroll through, you can’t decide what to watch. There are too many options. Everything just looks too good but nothing immediately stands out. Ultimately, you aimlessly scroll for 20 minutes and walk away having watched nothing, instead just opting to go to sleep. The abundance of options made it too hard to commit.
My internal dialogue was running wild. People may resonate with this, but this other idea might really strike a chord with them. What to choose. What to choose.
Then it came to me, an epiphany almost. This is it. This is the piece.
I was afraid to commit to an idea for fear of it not turning out well. I had so many options that I was overwhelmed. People are led to believe optionality is great but at a certain point, optionality goes wrong.
Where Optionality Fails
Yes, optionality is good to a point. It is a product of the choices you are afforded. You want options for dentists, doctors, grocery stores, etc. because those provide opportunities to not only get the best option for you but potentially, the cheapest option as well. Just like having many ideas affords me a wide range of things to write on but at a certain point, it is a world of diminishing returns.
Too many options kill commitment. I could not commit to a topic. I enjoyed all the possibilities but I didn’t want to be on the hook for a bad choice, a piece that people may not like. I was too concerned about the risk and felt comfort in the safety net that optionality provided. I was safe from having to produce something and if I didn’t commit to anything, there was a guarantee of not writing anything bad.
We are told we should keep all our options open. Not to close any doors. In the case one option fails, we always have the others to go back on. At the expense of accomplishments lies the accumulation of options.
As kids, we embraced that optionality. From figuring out what we want to be when we grow up to what sports we should play. We are told we should participate in as many sports as possible, which in turn helps us find what we may be best at. This is not wrong either as the research supports that idea.
In 2022, 88.9% of NFL draft picks were multi-sport athletes in high school, per Tracking Football. 68.7% participated in track & field and 43.1% were 3+ sport athletes. It is necessary until a point and the reasons to do it are very clear.
However, multi-sport participation largely dies after high school for good reason. College further trims down the field of athletic participants, especially those who compete across multiple sports. Time becomes limited, participation on a sports team becomes more time intensive, and academic pursuits are far more rigorous.
To reach the pinnacle of our profession, commitment is needed. Never do you see a quarterback going to pitch in the MLB. An NFL running back winning the Olympics. An EPL soccer player winning a marathon. The list goes on. When we do get a quick glimpse of a crossover, it is also quite clear.
DK Metcalf, the wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks, ran the 100-meter dash at the USATF Golden Games. He is considered one of the fastest, most physically imposing players in the NFL.
However, despite how great he is, he finished 15th out of the 18 competitors in the preliminary heats of the race, not even making the finals. He was not training to be an Olympic track runner; he was training to be an NFL Wide Receiver. DK Metcalf won’t be remembered for being a track star, he will be remembered for his time as an NFL Wide Receiver.
To be great at anything requires commitment and sacrifice, which is why DK Metcalf could not just walk in and win the 100m championship. You have to train specifically and dedicate abnormal amounts of time to win. You can’t just haphazardly commit, no matter how great you are, and expect to win.
To continue to leave all options open without ever committing, results in never fulfilling your potential.
Now, we have a world at our fingertips. Choices run rampant and the idea of something better being out there is always present. We are afforded more options than ever and as a result, we are more afraid to commit than ever before.
Take a look at marriage and dating, marriage rates dropping, and the proliferation of dating apps is certainly not helping. Download a dating app on your phone and you have more options than one could possibly conceive. Optionality is everywhere.
There is Always Something Better or So We Think
One of the biggest areas we are afforded optionality is in our careers. No matter the level of your career. From deciding whether to work at a local grocery store or restaurant to chasing a pay raise and level change or staying in a position you love; options are in abundance. You can always switch a career pursuit to chase something better.
When speaking on optionality and how it affects our career, Harvard Professor Mihir Desai puts it quite well,
“The Yale undergraduate goes to work at McKinsey for two years, then comes to Harvard Business School, then graduates and goes to work at Goldman Sachs and leaves after several years to work at Blackstone. Optionality abounds!
This individual has merely acquired stamps of approval and has acquired safety net upon safety net. These safety nets don’t end up enabling big risk-taking—individuals just become habitual acquirers of safety nets. The comfort of a high-paying job at a prestigious firm surrounded by smart people is simply too much to give up. When that happens, the dreams that those options were meant to enable slowly recede into the background. For a few, those destinations are in fact their dreams come true—but for every one of those, there are ten entrepreneurs, artists, and restaurateurs that get trapped in those institutions.”
Optionality is where risk goes to die, and choices are delayed. Instead, what is prioritized is leaving all doors open. This is comfortable because it provides a safety net against failure, a safety net of where you hope to be professionally one day.
It is a zero-risk game with nothing to lose but ultimately, nothing to truly gain. Trapped are the dreams and ambitions of what you truly want and what truly may be best for you. All sacrificed for the idea of something that may one day be better.
The world continues to innovate and improve so the bet on something better coming is not one of zero basis. However, nothing great was ever made by frolicking from option to option. The best things that are made and truly push this world forward are from those who closed all doors but one. Those who pursued the thing that truly moved them and those who sought to turn their dreams into a reality. To truly make great things, commitment is not only a recommendation but a necessity.
Parting Words
Don’t delay your dreams by leaving the door open to other options. Just like I was delaying this piece hoping something magical would come along, consoling myself and my inability to commit with the many options I had. Optionality was leading me wrong. I had to commit to ever get anywhere.
It is always easy to default into thinking something better can always come down the line, it is human nature. Embrace the optionality you are provided but not so much so you never commit.
Life is more than seeing parts of your life as precursors of time to facilitate and jump from option to option to get where you want to be next. Given enough of those days and life just becomes a waiting game. Living life in a perpetual waiting game for something better is a recipe that is ripe for disappointment.
Action is expensive but inaction costs a fortune.
Thanks for reading.
Scantron’s Selections - A few things I loved this week
The Trouble with Optionality - Mihir Desai - The piece in its entirety.
Resignation Letter of former 76ers GM Sam Hinkie - So good and not only provides practical advice but lets you look at the decisions through the lens of an NBA general manager.
The Freakishly Strong Base - Morgan Housel - Start investing as young as you can and build up a small base that compounds.