Opportunity Cost

Questions to help you see through the lens of opportunity cost:

1. And then what?

2. Compared to what?

3. At the expense of what?

Most people focus on what something costs today. These “direct costs” are easy to see and measure. Looking through an opportunity lens takes these direct costs into consideration but also considers indirect costs. Indirect costs can be foreseen but not measured. They include the cost of doing something, the cost of not doing something, the cost of what you could be doing, and, importantly, the cost of not doing something right.