When it comes to growing and building your business, you’re faced with decisions that have to be made every day. And every one of those decisions has a consequence and outcome that directly impacts your success or failure.

The same is true for poker players. Every hand that you’re dealt and the choice to fold, check, call, or raise has a consequence and outcome-you’ll either see the next card and have to go through your decision making processes all over again, or you won’t. And this repeats itself every hand that’s dealt and every card that’s turned over in the center of the table.

Playing poker is much like running a successful business, and the poker theory decision making model can be an incredible tool to incorporate into your approach to business. But, what exactly is poker theory, and how can that model make an impact on the growth of your business?

Today, we’re going to discuss and dive into exactly that as we explore some of the most effective and efficient decision making models for entrepreneurs.

So, what is the poker theory decision making model? 

The goal of poker theory decision making is to lead you to optimal play and become impossible to beat. You’re playing without complete information every time you play a hand in poker. This is because you don’t know what the other player is holding. But you can make informed decisions based on the uncertainty in front of you.

With the poker theory decision making model, you’re able to embrace that uncertainty by calibrating your confidence. Or, to break that down more simply, you can’t always express 100 percent certainty in every decision that you have in front of you in business, but you can be 75 percent confident that it’s going to work out.

How does this approach affect my decision making for my business?

As with anything in life, there is only a certain degree of certainty in the outcome. The fact of the matter is that you’re always hedging a bet when you choose between two outcomes. Either you invest in buying that second building, or you don’t. You bring on that employee, or you don’t. You take an opportunity to franchise when it wasn’t part of your original business model, or you don’t.

Whatever the case may be, there’s always a pro and a con—a gamble. But betting doesn’t always mean that you’re losing. The same in poker is true.

Is it luck or skill?

This part of poker theory breaks down every outcome so you can assess them after the fact, otherwise referred to as “outcome fielding.” Do you feel that what happened after you made the decision was skill or luck? The truth is, it’s not luck at all when it comes to business. But so many people will say it’s bad luck when they make a decision that has a poor outcome or even fails. But then, when the outcome is positive, they spend time focusing on how skillful they feel the decision was.

But remember to keep an objective outlook on your decision making and ensure that you don’t whine about “bad luck” or spend too much time gloating in your successes.

You need to ensure that you’re creating a solid foundation for your decision making processes that focuses on accuracy, accountability, and openness to diverse views. Because let’s be honest, you’re not always going to know what to do when faced with a choice or what the best decision is. But someone on your team or in your close circle might be able to offer guidance that leads you to the best outcome possible.

And if the decision you make ends up in failure, be smart enough to own the responsibility in it that you had.

Play the long game

What you do now also has an impact on the future. This is true in both life and business. When you reach for the candy bar instead of the banana, that directly impacts your future self, so be sure you’re looking at the situation from the long game perspective. You want to outlast your competition, not succumb to a lousy bet poorly played.

Poker theory decision making can become a handy tool for your business and one that can lead you to understand all outcomes in front of you—even without complete information or facts. Take the time to practice this type of decision making in your business and see for yourself how powerful it can be for your growth!