It’s rare that we have a clear picture of how our lives can go in two different directions. Most decisions are small and lead from one small change to another. For Melanie, she had the opportunity to choose between two new jobs, having received two job offers in one day. At the time, she was in a dead-end job working for a bully of a boss. She applied for a new job with several companies and scored interviews with two of them. When she got the job offers, she had a clear choice to make. But which job to choose? Both paid about the same and had good benefits. The jobs were both in marketing, but very different kinds of marketing.
She decided to go with the job that seemed to offer more upward mobility. It was a good job and she met lots of wonderful people, some who are still in her life. But in the end, she left that job after a year. It wasn’t the right fit for her.
Did she lament the fact that she chose “wrong”? Not at all. She learned a lot from the job—things that she wanted out of a career and things she didn’t want. She went on to find other jobs—not all of them great—but with each one she learned more about what she wanted. She was treating her life as one grand learning opportunity.
Now and then, she wonders what would have happened if she’d taken the other job. Not out of regret, but out of a sense of idle wondering. Really, she can’t imagine her life without the friends she made at the job she took, or the work experience that helped her catapult, ultimately, to a job she loves.
Melanie took to heart the “No-Lose” Model in making her decision. She knows that her life is that of a student and she continues to learn, knowing that there is no right or wrong way to choose.