When You Can’t Test-Drive Your Decisions
I remember sitting at my kitchen table late one night, a mug of coffee going cold beside me, surrounded by open notebooks and course catalogs. My mind was a tangled web of possibilities—medical school prerequisites on one page, real estate flashcards on another, a Sports Psychology program brochure peeking out from under an event planning course guide. I could picture myself in each of these futures, thriving in completely different ways. And yet, I knew I could only choose one. That’s the gut-punch truth about life’s biggest decisions: you can’t try them all on for size before you commit. You have to choose without knowing how the story will unfold.
When I decided to leave my previous career and step into real estate, I thought the hardest part would be learning contracts, mastering negotiations, and finding clients. I was wrong.
The hardest part was choosing real estate in the first place.
At the time, my life felt like a game of “choose your own adventure,” except every path looked like it could lead somewhere meaningful. I was taking medical school classes, getting my real estate license just in case, seriously considering going back to school for a Sports Psychology degree, and even exploring the idea of becoming an event planner or wedding planner. Each option made sense. Each one spoke to different passions. And here’s the tricky part: I couldn’t test-drive them. I couldn’t live five parallel lives to see which would lead to the most success, joy, or fulfillment.
This is what economists call opportunity cost. Every time you choose one path, you give up all the other paths you could have taken. If you spend your Saturday morning working on your business, the cost might be sleeping in, going for a hike, or spending time with family. In career choices, that cost is even bigger—you’re giving up entire alternate futures.
And that’s where many entrepreneurs get stuck.
They want certainty. They want proof. They want a crystal ball that says, “Yes, this one is your winner.” But that crystal ball doesn’t exist.
I remember lying awake at night, my mind running in circles, thinking, What if I choose wrong? What if I regret it later?
Here’s what I learned:
Big decisions deserve big thinking, not frantic guessing.
Instead of rushing, I gave myself space for reflection. I journaled. I prayed. I sat quietly with my thoughts. I talked it out with a mentor—not a whole committee of voices, but a trusted few who knew my heart. I ran each option through the filter of my core values: Which choice aligns most with who I am and who I want to become?
That question was my turning point.
When I looked at the opportunities through that lens, real estate wasn’t just a career—it was a vehicle for the life I wanted to build. It offered the autonomy, challenge, and impact I was craving. I couldn’t predict the outcome, but I could make a choice I believed in.
And that’s what I want to tell you:
You may never know if you made the “right” choice in some perfect, alternate-universe sense. But if your choice honors your values and your vision, you can stand in it with confidence—knowing you made the best decision you could with the information you had.
When you lead with alignment instead of fear, you stop looking back at the doors you didn’t open. You start walking forward through the one you did—and that’s where your real future begins.
