🏡 Don’t Build A House On Atlantic Avenue
Atlantic Avenue is a really stupid place to build a house.
The rent costs $150 each and the rent with 1 house is only $110.
It’s also a really unlikely place for someone to land on the board, so the opportunities to get rent payments is way lower than other properties.
You can still buy the property and sell it to someone else who wants it, but use it as leverage—don’t invest in it.
What does the game Monopoly have to do with living a happy and productive life?
You have a limited amount of time, energy and resources.
It’s up to you to choose the projects and missions you will spend your time on.
You already have a lot of odds against you.
Building anything is hard enough all by itself.
If you’re going to invest in something, it’s important to increase your probability of success.
Monopoly is pretty straightforward and there are a billion statistical analyses and strategies you can dig up online.
Life and work are less straightforward and they’re up to you.
This isn’t about real estate, business, or board games—this is about focusing on the known game-changing factors that actually matter and increasing your chances of success.
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get started:
What are other people doing in your industry?
What are the characteristics of the successful big league players?
What might you do differently to stand out?
What is it that you do that is scarce and valuable?
What problem are you actually solving?
(Hint: it’s not that a customer has 4 widgets and they need 5, it’s because they’re lonely, hungry, or they have low self esteem. You need to dig deep into the basic mechanisms of behavior!)
2 Minute Action
Write a new email headline and A/B test it with your audience.
Steal someone else’s marketing concept and test the offer with your customers.
Do the math to figure out how many other competitors you have and look realistically at your chances of success. (FYI, If you’re starting a business in any industry, your odds are 1:10 right out of the gate, on average)
The Brain Hack From The 60s That Still Works Today
Your brain works on a reward circuit.
- Stimulus.
- Behavior.
- Reward.
That's the cycle.
Example:
- You see the living room is dirty and kinda smelly.
- You spray Febreeze.
- It smells fantastic.
That's the whole cycle and its part of everything we do as humans. No matter what you want to do, you will need to face this cycle.In fact, super successful products like Febreeze, Listerine, and Coca-Cola have built-in rewards that increase consumption behavior from customers.This isn't new--it's called reinforcement and it was coined by B.F. Skinner and the other Behaviorist Psychologists in the 60s.
It works in business and it works in life.
If you want to build a habit, break a habit, stop dating the same type of person, start exercising more, finish that novel, improve test scores, increase sales, decrease staff turnover, quit smoking, eat healthily, or WHATEVER . . .You're going to need to understand this basic, fundamental human circuit for behavior and how people respond to it.If your employees feel crummy every time they talk to you, they are going to stop talking to you and leave.If your students feel empowered and capable every time they leave your class, they're going to show up and try hard.If your customers feel like they didn't get what they expected, they are not going to tell you (they'll tell their friends) and they are not going to come back.
2 Minute Action
What's a habit or behavior you want to start, stop, or otherwise change?Don't stop there.What's the stimulus, behavior, and reward?It's up to you to identify, test, and solve for this reward circuit. If you're serious about getting your results, you're going to need to figure out how to hack your own behavior and do what you need to do.
"A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying."- B.F. Skinner
The Unusual Reason Listerine Is So Successful
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How many times have you gotten this within 2 seconds of hitting a new website or page?
How bad is that?We just met!Now you want me to upgrade? I haven't even used your product yet!
The first interaction someone has with you, your service, or your product, should be positive.
The first thing that should happen is that they get something. They feel good for making the decision to hit your page, buy your product, or hire you for the job.The first thing they need is a hit of dopamine to reinforce their behavior.Sounds a little mechanical but that's how brains work.
Stimulus. Behavior. Reinforcement.
EXAMPLE:Listerine doesn't need to be painful.But the marketing team found out that when consumers got "feedback" from the product, they felt like it was "working."They continued to use the product.You have to make your own ethical decision about whether the ends justify the means, but that's up to you.All I can share is what I know works.
2 Minute Action
What's the first interaction someone has with you, your brand, or your product?An email? A cold sales call? A welcome desk at your office?It only takes 2 minutes to come up with something small you can do, offer, or say within the first 2 minutes of meeting a new customer to make them sure that they made the right choice.Lollipops for their kids.A cold bottle of water.A cable to charge their iPhone.It's little things like these that your customers, clients, patients, or students will remember and then tell others about.