Edward Banfield, professor emeritus of government at Harvard University, who spent 50 years studying upward economic mobility. The most important? Think about the long-term consequences of your decision. In his book Get Smart!: How to Think and Act Like the Most Successful and Highest-Paid People in Every Field, author Brian Tracy presents ten different ways of thinking that enable better decision making. We may respect those able to fling themselves into a hard problem and make a quick choice with seemingly little thought, but making a meaningful decision needs to be done with care for the long-term effects.