Although I never saw the movie Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow (it is on my list of movies to see, but I have not gotten to it yet). But from what I understand, the basic premise is that given a decision, based on which way you choose, it has a profound impact on your life, whether you realize it or not. I often find myself thinking about this exact thing, that a decision I made at some point in my life could have drastically changed the outcome of my life and where I am today, whether or not I realized it at the time or even if I realize it now.

This is some pretty heavy stuff, if you believe that you life is a series or paths and based on what you choose, you may end up somewhere you did not expect. If you believe that everything is predetermined for you, then what I am saying you can just dismiss as poppycock (did I just say that, OH yes I did). The poet Robert Frost speaks to this in “The Road Less Traveled“, about coming to a fork in the road and choosing the one less traveled and that has made all the difference.

I was reminded of this last night as I received an e-mail from a colleague of mine from my days at AOL. A long time ago (well not really that long ago) she suggested to me that I take up reading a few tech blogs to get both of my feet back into the Web and the goings on in the industry. Mind you, I was heavily involved with the web at the time, but I was not as involved as I could have been. I took her advice and started reading those blogs (I can’t remember all of them now, but they were the bigger ones of the time and still today) and from a career perspective, the doors started opening. I was presented with opportunities that were never there before, I met people that I never even knew of, but were movers and shakers in our world. All of this because of one small piece of advice that I chose to take.

Life is mysterious, both personally and professionally. Running a business is chock full of decision making opportunities, some seem much more impactful than others, and they very well may be at the time, but sometimes the small decisions have the hugest impact in the long run. So the next time you are making a decision and you think who cares, it is meaningless, think twice, it may change the future of your business, for the better or worse. Choose wisely !