The title refers to Jim Treliving’s book called Decisions, Collins, Toronto, 2012. Mr. Treliving is the co-founder of companies such as Boston Pizza and Mr. Lube as well as being involved in a host of other things he finds interesting. From watching him on CBC’s venture capital show called Dragon’s Den, he is generally seen as the nice Dragon. As December approaches January and New Year’s Resolutions – this book is a one you may wish to read.

Mr. Treliving path has gone from a police officer to multi-millionaire as a owner of a franchised restaurant chain. The path has not been a straight one, there were many twists, turns, sleepless nights and an exciting journey along the way. Looking back on the journey, Mr. Treliving believes simplicity is the key to success and his pattern of making decisions is “I make decisions about my work with my heart, about money with my head, and about people with my gut. In other words, I am emotional about work, practical about money and instinctual about people.” The outcomes are about work enthusiasm, about money being disciplined and about people loyalty trust. For example, in terms of work – he wants to be with people who love their jobs and can see both the big and small pictures. In terms of money – be rational and disciplined, and in terms of people do you want to work with them? to partner with them? do you like them?

Mr. Treliving talks about his training as a police officer helps to be able to look over a person and make a decision. From then he flushes out questions which gives the ability to affirm or change the decision. If you need help in this area, taking a course about police investigations procedures or how the police read people is something you may wish to consider, Mr. Treliving believes the skill to be invaluable and has remained a cornerstone of his decision making process.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, one of the reasons for choosing these types of stocks is they are profitable which helps you make a better decision. Everyday you are presented with many opportunities, if you start with does the company make money? has it paid and continues to pay a dividend? these questions will narrow the field and ensure a return of your investment. The capital gain will become the secondary part, yes we all want the wonderful capital gain, but if you focus on the return on your investment you can choose a healthy return with a low risk, and as a bonus, history shows all profitable companies stock will rise in value.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions