My Mistakes: Desperation leads to bad decisions

My mother said something one time that really stuck with me.  She was reflecting back on a time when my sister and I were young kids, my folks were fairly new in business, and money was tight.  She said, "Looking back, when we were the most financially desperate, we made the worst financial decisions."  

I'm not sure why that stuck with me, but I have found it to be true.  But even more true than just financial decisions.  I think it can apply to almost all situations.  The more desperate we are, the more we are inclined to make bad decisions.

Want an example?  Let me tell you about the time I hired Ross Johnson. (the names have been changed to protect the innocent--or maybe in this case, the guilty.)

I had been in business for a couple of years, and I was outgrowing the ability to do everything myself.  It was a good problem to have, but we were still very small.  I couldn't pay much, and we had no benefits at all.

Then suddenly we got two pretty good orders that were going to be regular business.  They were beyond my capability to do them, so suddenly I was desperate to hire someone.  

Along comes Ross Johnson.  Probably about 30.  Rough looking.  Rail thin.  Very bad teeth.  Jittery.  All the signs of a meth user.  But he had experience making what I needed, and remember, I was desperate (not to mention young and naive). 

So I hired Ross.  You might be thinking this was a bad decision.  Feel free to call this Bad Decision Level 1. 

Then Ross asked what his work hours would be.  I replied that he could set his own hours as long as he got the work done.  You can call this Bad Decision Level 2.

Little did I realize that Ross would not show up for a day or two at a time, then come work 24 hours straight, with wildly inconsistent production results.  Did I fire him?  No.  Remember, I was desperate.  Bad Decision Level 3.

At the end of the third week, Ross asked to borrow my car.  He had to go to Oklahoma for a "family emergency" and was worried his truck wouldn’t make it. I said okay.  How could I deny someone the chance to help their family?

Little did I realize that Ross would return the car with the interior door panels removed and laying on the back seat.  I asked what that was about.  Ross said there was a bad rattle and taking off the interior panels helped it.  Even I didn't believe that weird answer, but I didn't fire him. Let's skip level 4.  You can bump me up to Bad Decision Level 5.  (that's the highest level of bad decisions in case you didn't know.)

Ross didn't show up to work for the next 3 days.  I called every day.  Finally he answered the phone and said he needed to go out of town for a while.  

It turns out that Ross had used my car to haul drugs to Oklahoma.  He had taken off the door panels and stuffed the drugs in the doors.  Then put the panels back on until they were delivered.  Took them off to unload the drugs.  By then he must have been too tired to put the panels back on.  Thus, the door panels were delivered to me in the back seat.  

You may be wondering how I know all of this.  Well, I had a tip.  The tip came when a real rough looking guy came to my office and rather forcefully said "Where's Ross Johnson?"  I replied "Ross isn't here. I can't find him and I haven't seen him for days."  Then the guy looked at my car and said even more forcefully "Why is his car here?"  It was then that I realized that this guy might possibly kill me.

I explained the situation of loaning Ross my car and showed him the removed door panels.  Thankfully, the guy believed me and even explained what Ross had done.  I'm not sure why the guy was looking for Ross.  I never heard from Ross Johnson again.

It sounds absurd, doesn't it?  How could I be so dumb?  Well, I was desperate for help.  My decision making was compromised and I couldn't see clearly like I could later when the desperation passed.

It also occurs to me that Ross was desperate too.  For totally different reasons, but his decision making was definitely compromised.

That's the end of the Ross Johnson story.  My guess is that you don't have quite as dramatic of a bad decision story. (I hope you don't.)  But you've probably got something.  We all tend to fall victim to bad decisions when we are the most desperate.

In short, here are the lessons I think we can learn:

1.  Avoid desperation.  This is easier said than done, but do things like have an emergency savings account, avoid procrastinating, do routine maintenance.  All of the little boring things that qualify as prevention.  Ben Franklin said "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and he was right.

2.  If you are desperate, think about this blog and just be aware.  Remember what my mother said and remember the story of Ross Johnson.  If you can help it, don't make any big decisions until the crisis passes.