Hosted by Christina Ruffini and Sir Richard Dearlove
Guest
Episode Summary
So what’s the best (and worst) decision you’ve ever made, in your career?
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Transcript
INTRODUCTION
Kosinski: Welcome back to One Decision, a bonus episode, something unique that we want to share with you. I'm Michelle Kosinski. We all have decisions to make in our lives. Good ones, bad ones. You know which ones they are. Well, we just spent the week in New York at the UN General Assembly, where once a year, the whole world comes together and often tough decisions are made. We spoke to some smart, stellar, salt of the earth people around this gathering about decisions they faced. Those will be coming up in our next seasons, but we also wanted to give you a little peek inside for fun. On a warm, sunny, early fall evening on a rooftop overlooking New York City, we asked some UNGA goers what were the best and worst decisions they have made in their careers. All anonymous. Enjoy.
VOICES OF UNGA
Kosinski: Okay. Nobody knows who you are. What is the best decision you've ever made?
Voice: I guess taking an internship in a career I had no original interest in, and it led me to where I am today.
Kosinski: Okay. This is a flash interview. What's the best decision you ever made career wise?
Voice: To come to the US.
Kosinski: And how about the worst decision career wise?
Voice: To delay so long till I came to the US.
Kosinski: This guy really likes the US. Yeah.
Voice: Worst decision, I don't know, had my own business for a while and we went through some amazing times and some very challenging times. Even though we didn't get everything right, think what we learned was well worth it in the end. But overall, best I'd say was come to the US. Why do you love the US so much? I think despite ebbs and flows of politics, there's still great opportunities and great people here. But mostly the opportunities.
Voice: The best decision I ever made was getting into international affairs. I love it.
Kosinski: And how about the worst decision on the job you ever made?
Voice: There may be more than one.
Kosinski: You have another glass of wine, sir. We'll see you soon.
Voice: In my work, what's the best decision?
Kosinski: I came to the United States. Hey. Everybody's saying that. Alright. Take care.
Voice: Being my own boss. Grad school?
Kosinski: That's an answer. How about the worst decision you ever made in your work?
Voice: Don't do not be fooled. There have been plenty. I'm just trying to rank them, stack rank them. Oh, man. Good lord.
Kosinski: Maybe not going into radio with a voice like that?
Voice: Probably. Probably not pursuing that. You guessed it.
Kosinski: Okay, ladies. In your work, what is the best decision you ever made?
Voice: To address representation and inclusion of forcibly displaced persons.
Kosinski: That is a damn good answer. I think your boss would enjoy that. The worst decision or decisions?
Voice: I have ever made are when I don't listen to my gut, to my intuition. It never works out. When you don't listen to your internal compass, you're making a mistake. The best decision I ever made was to have my children. I did not want children. And I ended up bowing to the will of my then spouse. I really did.
Kosinski: Wait. You who work in reproductive rights, you were forced to have them babies.
Voice: And I became a much kinder, gentler, compassionate person because of those relationships.
Kosinski: I've heard people say that before. How about you?
Voice: It's the same decision. The best decision was leaving home, and the worst decision was leaving home.
Kosinski: Where's home? Home is Palestine. Wow. Yeah. That's a tough decision. I know.
Voice: The best decision, probably to downsize heavily the senior management of my organization. That had an incredible impact on the working environment and the productivity. And also the ability to reach, you know, to be more agile and being an organization that needs to adapt to political developments, it's a great factor. How about the worst decision in your work? Worst decision. I took pretty bad decisions when it came to recruitment a couple of times, but that, you know, I don't know whether it's just a — you know, you can never really test somebody.
Kosinski: Truly. That's tough, though. Because you're dealing with a human being then. Now you're stuck with them.
Voice: Definitely. Well, the worst decision was probably to let myself being carried away by the pace of traveling we used to have pre pandemic because that, you know, had really devastating impact on my personal life, but also on the ability to be more present and to ensure the coordination of all the different efforts in institution wise.
Kosinski: I think that's the most eloquent answer I've ever heard. And so few people think about that, but I think about that. That's a great answer. Thank you. I'm gonna scoot in front of you. How about you? Best decision in your work?
Voice: Best decision in my work, probably having a courage to hire half of a new team during a pandemic. I think and yeah. And figure out how to get to know people.
Kosinski: Yeah. That's hard. And how about your worst decision in your work?
Voice: My worst decision in my work was probably try to start a new program in the Russian Federation during a lot of turbulence.
Kosinski: Very interesting. Okay. In your work, best decision you ever made?
Voice: To make a lot of bad decisions and learn from them, I think.
Kosinski: And how about the worst decision you ever made?
Voice: To limit myself. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. To limit. To limit. Always a bad decision.
Kosinski: Yeah. Interesting. That's good. So how about you?
Voice: Oh my gosh. I've made a lot of bad decisions though too. You know what? I guess the best decision I've ever I had to make is to just, you know, go for it and actually just allow myself to just let go. Like, for real. I think that's one of the best — the way that I had a breakthrough in my career.
Kosinski: And how about your worst decision?
Voice: Worst decision would probably be to, you know, like kinda hold have thoughts about myself that aren't true or, you know, the like insecurities and stuff, like diving into insecurities, I guess.
Voice: Yeah. I think the best decision was to start a company, to go out of government and to try being entrepreneurial to discover what building something yourself, not relying on others, an institution to support you, and you learn a lot about yourself too. How about the worst decision you ever made? I'd say, you know, the worst decision I probably ever made was on going to college. And, you know, my instinct was let me get as far away from home as possible. And I went out to the Midwest of the US where it seemed at the time to be a new adventure, but I think I probably would have been better served by staying closer to home and not having to adapt to the realities of a completely different culture, you know, in the US.
Kosinski: Wait. You're saying the Midwest is a completely different culture? They don't take kindly to brash New Yorkers.
Kosinski: You had some bad experiences. I know it. In your work, what is the best decision you've ever made?
Voice: I would say being open to opportunities as they present themselves. So if someone asks you to join and do something, you may not have the most experience. You may have a great number of experiences to help out. But being open to that kind of opportunity is the kind of decision you need to be making more often than not. I'm totally with you on that. How about in your work, worst decision you've ever made? I think the worst decision I ever made was probably failing to write a piece due maybe months in advance until three or four days before it was expected. I think that was the worst decision. Lost nights of sleep. Wasn't a good product in the end. So I think that's where I would say it was my worst decision.
Kosinski: From a fellow procrastinator and perfectionist, I really appreciate that answer. Thank you.
CLOSING
Kosinski: I found this so interesting. Amazing how people had these great answers off the top of their heads too. Part of the reason for the podcast, of course, is to think about decisions and how much we can learn from those of other people as well. Thanks for joining us. I'm Michelle Kosinski. Follow us wherever you find your podcasts and on social media. Check out our website. Get in touch. We'd love to hear from you here at One Decision.
