Write your decision record
Use the prompts below, then download or print your notes. Entries stay in this tab. Download a copy before closing it. Keep that first copy to compare with the outcome later.
Open the notebook
Record a choice before you know the result. Later, return to the same page to compare what you expected with what happened.
This exercise draws on the book's attention to cash timing, responsibility, useful disagreement and records that survive a handoff. Use it alongside a chapter or a decision of your own.
The page to copy
Use a fresh page for one choice. A modest decision with a clear next step is easier to examine than a plan containing every ambition at once.
| Entry | What to record |
|---|---|
| Decision and date | What are you deciding, and what event makes a decision necessary? |
| Available choices | Include a narrower version, a delay or the current arrangement when each is genuinely available. |
| Evidence | What has been observed? Identify the source, the period and the exact question it answers. |
| Assumptions and gaps | What are you expecting rather than knowing? Which missing fact could change the choice? |
| Resources and timing | What money, work or capacity is already promised? What would the next step add, and when? |
| Other parties | Who must do something for the plan to work? What have they agreed to, and what remains a request? |
| Decision owner and authority | Who decides, who acts and which commitment requires further authorization? |
| Next review | Record a date or event, the evidence to bring and what might lead to a change. |
| Later result | Return here after the event. What happened, what differed from the expectation and what would you now do differently? |
Keep an unanswered entry visible. A blank can identify the next useful question. A confident guess written as fact makes the later review less informative.
A filled example
Imagine a furniture workshop considering deliveries to a second town. This business and its circumstances are invented. The example illustrates a decision record, not a forecast or a reported result.
- Decision
- Whether to promise a regular delivery day in the new town.
- Choices
- Accept individual deliveries at an agreed charge, offer a regular day or continue serving the present area.
- Evidence
- Several recent customers have asked about delivery there. The workshop has their inquiries, but has not established whether they would buy at the proposed total price.
- Assumptions and gaps
- The owner expects nearby orders could share a trip. Addresses, suitable dates and the loading time are not yet known.
- Resources
- The current driver also helps in the workshop. A regular delivery day could remove that help when existing orders are being completed.
- Other parties
- Customers must agree to dates and charges. The driver needs a workable route and time for loading. None of those arrangements is treated as accepted yet.
- Authority and next review
- The owner asks the operations lead to prepare a route and staffing comparison before the next monthly scheduling meeting. No recurring delivery promise has been authorized.
- Result
- Left open. The inquiry count is evidence of interest, not a completed test of the service.
Return without rewriting the original decision
When reviewing the page, preserve the earlier expectation. Add the outcome beside it. A good result can come from a decision that left too little room for delay; a disappointing result can reveal a problem the original information did not settle.
Ask which assumption changed, which evidence proved useful and whether an obligation was omitted. Then name the next decision. The point is to improve the next choice, rather than make the original entry sound more perceptive after the event.
If resources need closer examination, use the owner-contribution inventory. If the difficulty is the period between starting and reaching the expected operation, use the first-year worksheet. Bring the conclusion back to this page with the person and date for the next review.
Read alongside the book
Chapter 6, Buying a Business That Was Losing; Chapter 10, The Company Kept Going; Chapter 12, What Ownership Pays For; Chapter 13, Choosing the Next Bet; Chapter 16, A Company That Can Think.
Original commentary and discussion material. Read the full personal accounts in Infinite Upside: Building Wealth With Room to Live, by Vijay Sheth.
Choose a chapter to read alongside the notebook
Reader’s Guide