When making big decisions - business, investment, or other - it's critical to do the following:

• Know the numbers. Numbers are reality, everything else is subject to delusion. If you're operating your business without a firm handle on your financial data, you simply can't make good business decisions. Decision making without good financial data would be like trying to launch the Space Shuttle into orbit without doing the proper calculations first.
  
  
• Evaluate all projects and initiatives against your finances. You can only do so much. Rigorously study your possible projects and decide whether or not they're worth doing. As Peter Drucker famously said, there's nothing so futile as doing a project that should never have been done at all. (paraphrased)
  
  
• Prioritize your initiatives, and then do first things first. This will likely mean you're going to need to move slower than you'd like, but taking this approach will ensure that your initiatives will be successful more often than not. 90% of projects fail to live up to their original promise - the reason for this is largely lack of a proper level of due diligence and preparation ahead of time.
  
  
• Say "no" to opportunities that don't fit into your plan or finances. One of the most productive things we can learn to do is to know when to say "no". When a new initiative is going to take precious mental, time, and financial resources away from the things that are moving you forward on your path, not saying "no" is at best counter-productive, at worst self-defeating.
  
  
• Sometimes, throw the rule book out the window. There is a time to break all the rules, and opportunities that arise that can completely transform the game you're playing. The only way you know if it's a true fork in the road, though, is by following all of the above.
  
  
• Above all else, don't be greedy. Focus on making quality decisions, not on satisfying your insatiable hunger for more.

Lawrence Mortenson, President of LM Consulting, a management and marketing consulting firm in Los Angeles, holds a BA from Duke University and a Masters Degree from Washington University. His firm makes a specialty of coaching business owners, CEOs, and rising stars in increasing sales and improving management.