Slippery Math and The Focus Trap

Business brain, episode 478 for Friday, August 25, 2023. Greetings, folks, and welcome to Business Brain, the show where we tune our business brains together by discussing what. Researching, digging in on a few topics each week. Sponsors for this episode include financing that works.com, where you can save 250 bucks on Zinch's application fee just because you're a Business Brain listener. We'll share some of the details about that in a minute. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, on Casual Friday, I'm Dave Hamilton.

Oh, it's Casual Friday and the month is almost over. It's amazing how quickly time flies around here. I don't know about you out there on the east coast, but out here it moves really quick.

No? Yeah, it also moves quickly here. It's just, just a few hours ahead of you. That's all.

That's right. That's right. Hey, I have a, I have this concept that I would like to talk about.

All right.

Today I have a couple of them, but the first one I want to discuss is, you know, we measure, like return on investment on everything, right? Okay, I'm going to do this. And what do I get out of it? Whether. And we've talked about it. We talked on the show over and over and over. But I, I want to introduce this concept that I've, I've started calling slippery math. Oh, bear with me for a minute. Tell me if I'm crazy or if you think you're crazy because. Oh, wait, yeah, I know that.

All right.

Because I talk about, you know, with my friends and family and we talk about on the show like this. Oh, living a pre tax lifestyle and. Yeah, living a charmed life. How your business can help you, this and that, you and that. I really noticed it. I'm in the middle of buying a piece of property.

Okay.

And as I penciled out, put everything in a spreadsheet like I've always done, I was like, wow, you know, this is pretty tight. If we're going to make any money here, you know, we'll make some money. But I was like, yeah, it's kind of the roi. It was kind of light. So I sit down, I talked to, I talked to Renee and everything, and she says, yeah, but we love this place. We're going to go all the time. Oh. And I say, oh, that's, that's a huge roi, right? That's a big benefit. But there's no, it's intangible. You know, there's no number I can attach to it. And then I started thinking, well, this is where I think I could start using some slippery math, because there is a big value in the fact that maybe I'm going to go to this piece of property once a month, every six weeks, and we're going to be there, my kids are going to come visit, and family's going to come take my mom. Well, that's powerful roi, right?

Yeah.

And that's a huge part of living a charmed life. So then I started thinking about the concept, and I think I've been kind of doing it my whole life in the sense of, okay, we need some vehicles for the business, let's say, well, yeah, you could go buy the, you know, the most inexpensive and practical vehicle. But, you know, you kind of want to have a nice vehicle. You're taking lots of risk with your business. In the beginning, you're working long hours and at night, wouldn't it be nice to have a better car, a better truck? And yeah, the roi. Can you justify that? Well, the IRS says you can, especially if it's, you know, you need something to do your certain business. That's slippery math. And I think this concept is important to embrace, at least for me. I can only speak for myself, of course, because I often beat myself up thinking, man, I didn't do great on that deal. But there's some other benefit that you have to plug into this. So that's what I'm called. You think that's a good idea or you think you're going down a slippery slope?

Very nicely played. I, I, no, I like this idea. I mean, even if it fails spectacularly, you've learned, like you have the opportunity to learn something and hopefully you did.

Right.

Like, like we always say, mistakes are our tuition. That's how we justify paying for them. Now, unlike college tuition, or perhaps exactly like we should approach college tuition, we don't necessarily know in business the lessons we're going to learn and the price we're going to pay from our mistakes. Right. Like, you know, walking into it. It's generally we don't walk into deals saying, well, I'm going to spend a bunch of money and never get it back and I'm going to learn something. Oh, yeah, right. No, but that is literally what happens in college. So I'm just going to point that out. Hopefully you know what you're going to learn. Maybe, but like, even that, like knowing that going in on things like this is helpful, I think. But yeah, but you don't want to plan. You don't want to plan for the mistake, right? I mean, it's not, It's.

It's not a mistake.

That's what I'm saying is this isn't a mistake, right?

No, I think this is good with college. College or slippery math? Because, like, my daughter made so many contacts, and when we went, even on the tour when she was going to the School of Manhattan, they said, oh, well, well, we. The. The city is, Is part of what you're going to learn. The campus, the entire city, all these connections on Broadway. We're going to introduce you all these kinds of things. And us. Well, how do you, how do you put the value on that? Boy, that's. That's some slippery math.

Slippery math. No, and there. Yeah, I think this is good. I think it is a slippery slope, though. Like, we, we need to, we need to not put slippery math at the top of the priority list for deal that we decide to do, right?

Yeah. You'll be out of business.

You'll be out of business, right. So be smart about this. But know that somewhere, you know, maybe between 4 and 20 on the list should be slippery math. Right. Like, there's got to be some. And. And slippery math is also, in a sense, the leap of faith. Like my gut says, I know to do this, I can convince myself sort of on paper. Right? Like, and you have in your. The deal you described. So I can convince myself sort of on paper. There's gonna be a little bit of this that I don't know about, but I can already see some of the things that I can't assign, I can't attribute dollars to, but they are worthwhile for me.

Yes.

And that's the key. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. And so I think you could use it in different areas of your business. And this is something that I think you could turn it into a positive when it's applicable.

Yeah.

When it's. Because, like, with this property we're buying, I don't want to look back and say, because I think we probably paid. I definitely know I paid. Not too much, but more than I wanted to.

Okay.

But yeah, it happens, right? It happens. I, I pay. I, you know, I didn't pay them what they wanted, but I paid a little bit more than what I would like to have. So to me knowing, going into this thing where I'm going to learn a lot, I know it. I can look back and say, oh, you know what, it didn't appreciate that much, or this kind of thing, but it was okay because I knew there was slippery math going into this all.

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But how do you feel about my next topic?

I'm trying to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We, we talked about this on the show a lot and you know, focusing on this and that and the other and, and as you look around business books all on focus and this and don't get distracted and you know, looking back and maybe I'm doing that more and more now looking back on my life, I'm terrible at focus same. But I'm great at a wide bandwidth and embracing different opportunities. That's my, my superpower.

Yeah.

So I think for me I. There's a thing, you know, I'm calling it the focus trap. You know I love these buzzwords but. Because I think you can fall into this trap where you're so focused that you miss opportunities that are coming along on the peripheral. Right.

Okay. All right. Okay, I'll buy this. I'M in a little bit here.

Yeah.

Like, I, as someone, you know, a friend of mine, when I was in, like, maybe college, probably high school, said to me, you know, Dave, it's all about learning how to live with yourself. And he is correct. Like, we're all at least a little bit different, some of us vastly different. I have learned that I am someone who. I was never diagnosed with adhd, but, like, I certainly resemble a lot of those remarks. Right. So, yes, I know that I have to. I had to learn how to live with myself and not just, like, be at peace with this, but how to capitalize on being a little bit scatterbrained. Right. Like, you know, going in different directions sometimes trying to go in different directions at the same time. So I know that there is value for me in prioritizing focus, because there are some times where I need to sit down and do a thing without being distracted.

How short term? Short term focus?

Yes, yes. Short term focus. So I, like, I. I have to be careful not to just buy into phrases like the focus trap, however. Right. Because I know that for me, I need to maintain a healthy respect for focus. However, it's not all the time short term.

Yeah.

Because there are days when my best value to myself and my businesses is just letting myself kind of go with the flow.

Yeah, exactly. I'll give you my example.

All right.

We, you know, I've been in the technology business my whole life. Sure. And we had a relationship with a huge corp. A huge, huge company, and we were buying all their returns, you know, laptops, everything else, you know, portable stuff. And we did a ton of business. And one day I just was, you know, looking at all the stuff this company was involved in, and. And I was like, God, they sell all these different products, you know, and we're focused on technology. Well, I kind of already offloaded that. So maybe this is part of the. The discussion is being able, making yourself ready for that distraction that could turn into something positive. Because I'd already delegated that part. Right. So just me, I really wasn't running that part of the business anymore, so I had more time. And it turned out I made an offhand comment one day. I was like, man, what else can you guys sell me? And I got a call, like, three or four weeks later from somebody I'd never met at this huge, giant conglomerate, and they said, hey, I know you handle the technology and you handle returns for this group, and they love you. I have this problem. I need somebody to help me with watches. I was like, watches I don't know anything. In the back of my head, the first thing was, I don't know. That's not our business, that's not me. But that's not me. But I didn't fall into the focus trap. I said, hey, I'm sure, why not? Let's, what's this all about? And I flew out, I met this group, I started learning about it and then, you know, I spent time trying to find vendors that I could sell to and I decided, okay, let's do this watch stuff. And I partnered with some people and we first we tried to sell them to consumers and that was a complete and total nightmare and a failure, like a massive failure. But then one day, walking through the jewelry and watch district in New York, I went into this place and started talking to a guy. It turns out, you know, 20 years later, I've probably done over $25 million worth of business with this one person, all with watches. I don't wear a watch. I don't know anything about watches. But I understand how deals work and you know, how to make these things work. If I had been so focused that I'm a tech guy, this is my tech company and never would have gotten into and maybe I would have gotten some ancillary things. We did try to get in the TV business. Another huge mistake.

You've mentioned that. That was a disaster.

Yeah, I'll never, yeah, I still own a TV and I always call it, that's my hundred thousand dollar TV right there. Because that's about what I lost on that, that function. So that's what I mean by not falling in the focus trap is opening up your bandwidth. And, and I think there is some real value in understanding that you have to offload some things and delegate in order to have the, the privilege of being accessible to those opportunities. So you can't you get your head above it and go, yeah, let me, let's, let's try this out. But if you're just buried in it every day, yes, you have to focus, but you should be focusing on getting yourself out of that so you can go on to the next thing and build and create a revenue stack that you know is going to build your wealth over time. So that, that's what I mean by that. And if you think I'm crazy, let me know. You know, feedbackusbrain show. Tell me what. And I have a great defense of this, this topic that I'm going to be posting on my Twitter account that came from Walt Disney that I just found this graphic And I was like, dude, this guy's nuts. But it all came to fruition for him. Right? So it's an interesting topic and I'd love to talk, you know, hear everybody's opinion about it. Feedbackusinessbrain show.

Yeah, no, this is a good topic because you. There is always a next thing, right? Malcolm Glidewell is famous for saying, don't do the same thing throughout your career. Like, have multiple careers.

That's right.

And so in order for that to work, work. And I, I agree with him in, in a, like, sort of in a, you know, 10,000 foot view sense, like, yeah, I, I like, you got to be open to be able to do the next thing, to be able to evolve. So, yeah, I don't. I'm still not as old as Ray Kroc was when he started the business that we all know him for. I think so. Amazing, right?

Yeah, you're probably right. I just watched that movie Founder the other.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Awesome.

How. How old was he when he started McDonald's? It was in his late 50s, I think.

Yeah, late 50s.

Yeah. Yeah. So I'm still not in my late 50s, so, you know, the best is yet to come. And I've had a lot of good. Like, I'm not, you know, I'm not sitting here saying, man, I got to, I got to hit, you know, I got to hit it big next because. No, like, but still, like, you know, there's always something to come. So.

Yeah, absolutely, man.

Let us know. Like he said, Feedback. BusinessBrain show. We would love to hear from you. Make sure to check out Zinch at Financing that Works dot com. Keep living that charmed life, folks, and we will see you next week.