Decision Making Gone Awry
Desiree’ L. Johnson
Argosy University
Isabel Wan

Pediatrician
What I Thought I Wanted
Doctors are portrayed as one of the most successful professionals in the world. Growing up I was always told that I should become a doctor because they are successful and well off financially. I saw doctors on television, whenever I had an appointment with one and heard about them in school all the time. Becoming a doctor sounded amazing as a child and my parents encouraged me to become a doctor to be successful. I never saw all the work hard that was involved with becoming a doctor, the years of schooling and the tasks that would take place throughout the profession. All I was ever saw and told was doctors were amazing and extremely successful. At the age of eight, I decided I wanted to become a pediatrician just like my doctor, at the time. My mind was set on becoming a pediatrician, so I applied to various universities to become a doctor. I decided to go to California State University of Long Beach to receive a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Development.
Realization
However, two years after attending college I decided I did not want to become a doctor anymore. I learned that after undergraduate school that I still had to attending medical school and would most likely not be out of school until I was approximately thirty years old. I also learned that I did not like blood or needles, so that would not work well with the profession I was trying to pursue. Finally, I realized that my decision to become a pediatrician was not my decision. I had made the decision for other people and based on what I was told to do. I realized that I was not pursuing this career path for myself and it was not my passion in life. Therefore, I had decided to drop out of college without telling anyone including my parents.
Persuasion and Risks
Persuasion
Deciding to become a pediatrician was made by the power of persuasion. My parents wanted the best for me and they believed becoming a doctor would be best for me. In their opinion becoming a doctor was the equivalent to success; however, they overlooked my true passion in life. The media and its portrayal of doctors also persuaded my decision. There were few shows on television that portrayed the life of doctors, such as ER. I remember ER used to come on television Saturday nights around 11pm and my dad would make me stay up and watch it. I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep because we had to get up for church the next morning, but my dad insisted that I watch this show. From what I remember, this show portrayed the life of doctors in the emergency room as exciting and successful as could be. Due to these persuasions, I went off to college thinking I wanted to become a pediatrician.
Risks
Once I eventually realized this was not for me, I dropped out of school. I wasted two years of chasing after a dream that was not mine. The two years I was chasing after a dream of becoming a doctor I could have been using to become the chef I wanted to become. So much time, chasing this dream wasted money and energy. I took out loans to pursue this dream and now I am paying back a loan for a degree that I did not receive. I pushed off my true love of cooking to pursue a career that God did not have in my path. I felt lost during the process because I felt like I was not going after the desire of my heart. After dropping out, I was afraid to tell my parents that pediatrics was not for me and that I wanted to pursue a career that might not be as successful as a doctor would be. I had to live with the thought of breaking my parents’ hearts and the feeling of disappointment. These risks could have been avoided had I not allowed the persuasion of others to sway my decision to pursue a career path in pediatrics.
Incentives
Although I did not pursue the pediatric career path, there were numerous incentives. I was able to realize my true love for cooking and that culinary was the career path I wanted. The time I wasted chasing pediatrics was a time of reflection of what I truly wanted out of life. I finally enrolled into culinary school in 2010 and graduated in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in culinary management. Upon graduating from the Art Institute, I was offered a job that provides tuition assistance for its’ employees. This opportunity led me to pursue a master’s degree in business administration. I never imagined myself going back to school for a master’s degree. Therefore, had I not gone originally pursued a career path in pediatrics this current opportunity would not have been offered to me. In addition, during the chase of pediatrics I joined a sorority that I would not have joined if I did not pursue pediatrics. Therefore, I believe that this decision impacted my life in a way that I could never imagine.
Decision Biases and Risk Assessment
When making decisions there is a process that should be followed to ensure that an individual is making a sound decision. Those steps are: research and analysis the decision, weigh out all options, determining the advantages and disadvantages and possible affect it can have on an individual (Rykrsmith, 2013). Once these steps have been taken then a sound decision can be determined. However, these are not the steps that I took and being a kid at the time I did not know how my decision would impact my life in the future. All I was concerned with was social status, making my parents proud and being very successful. If I could do it again, I would follow the steps above ensuring my decision was a sound decision and not based on what other people wanted of me. I would ensure that I would have done my research about becoming a doctor, the steps to get there and how it would affect my life. In addition, if a risk assessment were performed the identification of hazards would have been completed (Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety, 2016). Next, analyzing how this decision would be a hazard to my life, such as: the time wasted, money spent, loans taken out and the feeling of emptiness. After completing risk analyze, I should have determined if there is a way to reduce or eliminate the risks. Once I had completed these steps I would have been able to determine if this decision was the best option for me. Therefore, if a risk assessment were completed I would not have chosen the decision to pursue a career in pediatrics. I would have been able to understand that this decision was not the best decision for myself and that I was ultimately making the decision based on others.
Social Heuristics
Doctors in today’s society are portrayed as successful. They are shown as living in nice homes, driving nice cars, always happy and most loved professionals. Our society tells us that if we are not within certain professions, such as a doctor than you will not be successful. The other person in culinary that was portrayed as successful was Julie Childs and they never showed any other chef. In France, chefs are praised and the most sight after profession but not in the United States. It was not until recently that culinary profession was admired. In addition, attending a university was important because attending a community college or trade school was not socially acceptable. It made it seem as if you were not accepted into a university because your social status, grades were not good enough or for financial reasons. Therefore, dropping out of college after being accepted was also socially unacceptable. For these reasons, I did not tell anyone that this was not my desire and that I wanted to drop out of college.
Challenges
Growing up, children cannot make decisions for themselves because of the pressure to make their parents proud. Persuasion begins at a very young age from parents and although it is not intentional it does occur. Because of these persuasions, most children were afraid of being a disappointment to their parent and this was no different for me. My dad more than my mom, wanted nothing more than for me to become a doctor and I was so afraid of disappointing him. I did not want to be like my other siblings that did not graduate from college and are not successful. So once I decided not to become a doctor and dropped out of college, I felt like a disappointment to my parents. To this day, I still feel not as successful as I would want to be in life or what my parents hoped for me to be. Another challenge when trying to make a sound decision is because of all the persuasion you do not know your true desires. Therefore, making a sound decision is difficult to achieve because you believe it is what you want to do later to determine that it is not what you truly want in life. When parents utilize persuasion to sway their children’s decisions about their future, the children are limited to other possibilities. Now it is simple for children to search various career paths through the Internet; however, growing up Internet access was limited and we did not relay upon Google for the answer.
Errors
While my parents and the media portrayed doctors as being successful, both failed to mention the full outlook of becoming a doctor. Either showed all the hard work that doctors had to put in, the long shifts and sleepless nights. Both failed to mention to become a doctor, it took approximately ten years of schooling and a board exam to become a doctor. Being a doctor is a stressful position because other people’s lives are in your hands as a doctor and one wrong turn could cost the doctor everything. Had I been given all aspects of being a doctor, I am sure I would not have made the decision to become a doctor.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the decision to become a pediatric was not a sound decision because I did not make the decision for myself; I made the decision for everyone else. I wanted to make my parents proud of me that I chased after a degree that was not in my heart to pursue. However, I would not take back that decision because there were great outcomes in making that decision. Although this decision was not a sound decision, it worked itself out and made me the person I am today. The decision to become a pediatrician taught me what I am afraid of, what I did not like and that it is important to chase after dreams that the heart desires. These are important aspects of not making a sound decision and a great motivation for others and myself. I thank God for the experience and my parents for unintentionally helping me find my true passion in life.

References
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety. (2016, June 8). Risk Assessment. Retrieved June 9, 2016, from OSH Answers Fact Sheets: https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/hsprograms/risk_assessment.html
Rykrsmith, E. (2013, May 31). Bias in Decision-Making – Part 1. Retrieved June 9, 2016, from QuickBase: http://quickbase.intuit.com/blog/bias-in-decision-making-part-1