🏡 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)

Are You On Track With Your Resolution?

It's almost February.Most people with New Year's Resolutions quit sometime in February.That means it's crunch time.What's at the top of your priority list?Remember the last thing we talked about? Here's a reminder.

The likelihood you'll succeed with your resolution:

• When people say “I will do . . .” only 29% of people actually follow through.
• When people say “I will do . . . because . . .” that number jumps to 39%.
• And get this, when people say “I will do . . . because . . . on . . . day . . . at this time . . .” that number jumps up to 91%.

What's the trick?Specificity and social support.

2 Minute Action

Reply and let me know if you've had the same resolution every year and what you think is holding you back from making it happen.Or reply and let me know what your new resolution is and how you plan to do it.Just by saying it, you're increasing your chances, and it only takes 2 minutes.