The Superpower of Decision

I have a good friend on the precipice of making a big life decision. For our purposes here, I will call him “DAVE,” in all caps, although that is obviously not his real name. I am only referring to him as DAVE, because it’s a great metaphor for a very important superpower that we all need to be reminded we possess from time to time — the superpower of decision.

This idea struck me today during my morning round of stock chart analysis (the first of several rounds of chart analysis I conduct on the daily). Here, I came upon the parabolic spike in shares of Dave Inc. (NASDAQ: DAVE), which are up some 72% in just the past week!

The surge in DAVE shares came after the financial app developer, whose products are designed to help underserved consumers manage their money more effectively, reported robust quarterly earnings results that showed revenue growth of 47% year over year and earnings per share growth of a whopping 300%!

But this week’s The Deep Woods isn’t about the virtues of DAVE stock, although the company has now vaulted onto my personal watch list.

Rather, this week’s wider and more important topic uses the DAVE spike higher to remind us of what can happen to our own lives if we have the courage to make big, often difficult and definitely life-changing decisions.

In my friend DAVE’s case, he is facing the decision to end a long-time business relationship, cut ties and head out on his own. For the past several years, his situation has been fraught with conflict, animosity, tumult and a whole lot of unnecessary stress. The result here is that DAVE has become unhappy and disenchanted with one of the biggest aspects of his life.

Yet, like us all, DAVE has a superpower. He has the ability to make one decision that will libertate him from this disheartening situation. He has the ability to just choose to end things and move on with his life.

Now, DAVE is under no illusion that this will be an easy task. Exercising your superpower of decision and then living with the good and the bad consequences is something one must be willing to accept. And make no mistake about it; nearly every big life decision comes with positives and negatives. If it didn’t, it wouldn’t really be a big decision.

Yet, like DAVE the stock, post-earnings, a person’s life can often move parabolically higher and for the better when they exercise their superpower and just simply make the decision to go in a different direction.

Of course, when you do make these kinds of decisions, you can often be wrong. But what is the alternative? Stay in a situation that you know is unhappy and just suffer? That isn’t the way things ought to be, at least not in my worldview. In my opinion, we have but one life to live, and an incredibly brief time to live it.

So, if you are in a situation similar to this, be it a business relationship, a personal relationship or any other kind of relationship, and you’re not getting what you need out of it, then exercise your superpower of decision and alter your circumstance.

When you do, don’t be surprised if your life takes a bullish, parabolic move toward happiness.

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Comfort is Overrated

“The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.”

–Confucius

Our world is replete with creature comforts, and for the most part, that’s a fantastic thing. We enjoy the benefits of safety, food security and luxury due to our quest for comfort, and due to the motivation of capitalism at work. Yet, one thing I think we should frequently remind ourselves about is that comfort is but what one value we seek, and certainly not the best nor the most important.

In my view, comfort is overrated. I say that because discomfort, or resistance, or hesitation, or fear or doubt regarding something is often a sign that we need to do that very thing. The best example here is your fitness and your workouts. You know that working out properly is hard. And sometimes you don’t want to do it. But if you don’t face your discomfort and just do the workout, you won’t get stronger and fitter. So, if you want to be a “superior man” in the Confucius sense, then always keep your mind on the virtues you hold dearest, and not the desire for comfort that the common man seeks.

Wisdom about money, investing and life can be found anywhere. If you have a good quote that you’d like me to share with your fellow readers, send it to me, along with any comments, questions and suggestions you have about my newsletters, seminars or anything else. Click here to ask Jim.

In the name of the best within us,

Jim Woods