E · R · Dossier steps: Execute and Review
Some decisions have no good option, only less bad ones. The goal is not to feel sure. The goal is a clear reason you can stand behind later. You can do hard things, and this page shows you how to do them well.
In his 2015 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos split decisions into two types. One-way doors are hard or impossible to undo, so they deserve slow, careful thought. Two-way doors can be reversed if they don't work, so make them quickly and learn. Many owners treat every decision like a one-way door and stall the whole company.
Bezos also wrote that most decisions should be made with about 70% of the information you wish you had. Waiting for 90% usually means you're too slow. The what-if work is how you make 70% feel safe enough to act.
For each big call, record the date, what you chose, why, what you expected to happen, and when you'll review it. In the Dossier Method that record is the dossier itself: E is making the call and setting tripwires, and R is grading it later on the Decision Quality Grid. Judge the reasoning with what you knew then, not only the outcome. Good decisions sometimes have bad luck.
A tripwire is a signal you choose in advance that forces you to rethink. "If the new service hasn't covered its costs by month four, we shut it down." Decide the tripwire while you're calm, so you don't have to argue with your own sunk costs later.