More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.

The hidden cost of waiting

We often treat decision-making like it's a math problem with a "correct" answer hiding somewhere—if we just think harder or gather more information, we'll find it. But that's a comforting fiction. In real life, most meaningful decisions involve genuine trade-offs where something valuable gets sacrificed no matter what you choose. The trap isn't usually making the wrong call; it's never making one at all.

The damage of indecision is sneaky because it doesn't feel like a choice. You're not picking anything, so it seems safer. But hesitation has its own consequences. Relationships fray while you're deciding whether to commit or end things. Career momentum evaporates during endless deliberation about that job change. Opportunities literally expire. You lose ground just by standing still, and that's a loss you can't recover the same way you might recover from a genuine mistake.

The slightly harder truth is that some "wrong" decisions are actually better than perfect indecision, because at least you learn something real. You get feedback. You adjust. You move forward with actual information instead of hypothetical worries. Cicero's point isn't that you should be reckless—it's that the cost of paralysis often exceeds the cost of getting it imperfectly right.