Have you ever made a bad decision?  I know I have made many throughout my life.  It’s important first to acknowledge that the bad result is not someone else’s fault.  Yes, someone or something may have contributed to the failure but you must accept the fact that at some early point in time you, for even a moment, had the opportunity to act differently but you didn’t.  Perhaps you didn’t act because of ego, greed, selfishness, arrogance, impatience or even ignorance.  This day and age we “multi-task;” we talk on phones, think about cases, change lanes, all at a high rate of speed.  These are bad decisions.  Just because we get away with some bad decisions every day doesn’t mean that in the future a bad result or disaster will not happen, which afterwards you will realize could have been avoided if you had changed one small thing or acted in a more orderly, obedient, and self-disciplined fashion.  But where’s the fun in that?  There’s no question that being self-disciplined isn’t fun, but the agony of knowing you could have avoided a bad situation is much greater than the brief moment of spontaneous jubilation from an unthinking action.  I was reading a story about a guy named Joe.  He was spoiled, but he was a real good kid.  He had a special place in his Daddy’s heart.  His brothers were jealous.  To fast forward, after being sent away he ended up at a rich guy’s house working for slave’s wages.  At what I would call the “Desperate Housewives; Mrs. Robinson” moment, his boss’ very hot wife asked him to be her “sex slave.”  He could have thought “Why not? No one will know; her husband’s a jerk; I really run this place and . . .  SHE’S HOT!”  Get the picture?  The problem was he knew the difference between right and wrong.  He understood the concept of blessings and penalties.  He knew the long-range effect of allowing his body to rule his mind.  So he ran away.  Not very good T.V., but great real life.  After that, he was thrown into jail because of some trumped up charges by the wicked seductress.  Most people would have been thinking, “I should have stayed with her and I wouldn’t be in this horrible place.”  But not our boy Joe.  He knew he made the right choice.  Anyway, he gets out because a jailhouse snitch is trying to suck up to the chairman of the board who is having sleeping problems.  Joe is brought to the fancy board room better known as “Sycophant Alley,” but he refuses to laugh at the chairman’s joke.  The chairman then realizes that Joe is the only truthful guy in the room.  Joe gives him an economic forecast and a plan to avoid financial ruin.  Joe becomes the CEO, COO and CFO.  Later, an agricultural disaster hits the land and the chairman’s stocks soar.  Through a strange turn of events, Joe’s family ends up in his land.  They are all reunited.  The family business is saved.  And Joe is so happy he gives them Goshen-front property.

An old friend once told me that good decisions are the product of wisdom and wisdom is the product of experience and experience is the product of bad decisions.  Don’t beat yourself up if you make a bad decision; just realize it is the first step to making a good one.  Remember our decisions as lawyers and judges affect the lives of so many more people than just those whom we see.  Live in the details; think big picture.  As far as big picture is concerned, have you asked anyone to join our Bar Association lately?