How to make smarter decisions

Most bad decisions aren't because we lacked information — it's because we didn't know how to weigh what we had.

That’s why I’ve been building a set of simple but powerful rubrics for evaluating opportunities, people, projects, and priorities.

Today, I’ll share 2 you can start using right away — and a preview of a few more coming soon.

You can copy these, tweak them, or build your own versions depending on your sector and your goals.

1. Opportunity Evaluation Matrix

Use this when:
You’re deciding whether to pursue a new idea, project, partnership, or investment.

Core Criteria:

• Strategic Leverage: Does this open up bigger doors later?
• Ease of Execution: How difficult would this be to start and sustain?
• Emotional Alignment: Does this genuinely excite or nourish you?
• Downside Risk: If it fails, how bad is the loss?
• Timing Fit: Is now the right time — or would later be smarter?
• Resource Match: Do you currently have what it takes (skills, capital, relationships) to win?

Each factor is scored individually, then combined to help you see the true shape of the opportunity — not just how it feels in the moment.

2. Talent Identification Matrix

Use this when:
You meet someone and want to assess whether they might be worth investing in (as a teammate, mentee, partner, or early hire).

Core Traits to Look For:

• Learning Velocity: How quickly and accurately do they learn?
• Resilience: How do they handle setbacks?
• Creative Drive: Do they create new value or just maintain old systems?
• Self-Alignment: Do they know what they want — and are they moving toward it?
• Energy Signature: Are they energizing or draining to be around?

This matrix isn’t about judging people harshly.
It’s about spotting early signals of high agency and high upside — before the world notices.

You can download the current version of it right here.

Use it for people you know and let me know how well its working for you.

What's Coming Soon:

I’m also working on sharing frameworks for:

• Hiring the Right People
• Choosing the Right Mentors
• Filtering Client Fit (for service businesses)
• Prioritizing Daily Tasks with Clarity

Each will be a working tool you can use, adapt, and improve.

Why This Matters:

We don’t rise to the level of our ideas.
We fall to the level of our systems.

If you have a simple system for consistently making better bets —
on ideas, on people, and on yourself —
your odds of building something meaningful go up dramatically.

I’ll keep sharing every piece of infrastructure I build — so you can either adopt it or make an even better version for yourself.

– Ali