Pivot.
One of the most well-known pivots in the world today is Twitter. The story goes as such: In 2005, Odeo was a directory to create/record/listen podcasts founded by Noah Glass and Evan Williams to fill the need for a place for podcasts (which they thought everyone would have in the future). But Apple swooped in with iTunes and the demand for the service was no longer there (and funding was low) so the Odeo company had an all-day brainstorming session; Jack Dorsey presented the concept for project "twttr" (which everyone knows now as Twitter) and in two weeks it was developed. Now the service is vital to the world and how news is distributed; it was critical in the Arab Spring for real-time communication for coordination/awareness. (Twitter cleverly made an April Fools from their old name. Interestingly they use blogger)
So, everyone in their lives have to make decisions; you can follow the direction you are already going or make a pivot to another direction. My doppelgänger recently proposed the question: "Would you be a different person if you made a different decision in your life?" (like choice of college/career) Of course the answer would be an absolute "yes". And this led to the many-worlds interpretation (Poor Schrödinger's Cat...):
Then, the discussion led to "Do you regret anything you have done? Would you change any of the decisions that you made if you could?" This may seem like a pointless conversation since in most cases, you can't just go back in time and change it (if you have the capability, let me know without telling anyone else). While it may not affect the past, I feel that thinking about the question could be extremely useful to help make decisions in the future, utilizing the results of previous decisions; there lies the importance of history and its stories. One of the great reasons to being a great listener is that other people's experiences can great benefit you. By listening and experiencing, one has a better perception of which decisions are more influential than others to one's life; I'm sure everyone can look back to a few select decisions that dramatically transformed their life. By the end of the conversation, I was ended up asking myself "What decisions in my life do I have to make to become the person I want to be?"
What are your thoughts?