perception

Should I Buy Season Tickets?

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If you’re looking at this question and asking yourself, would I enjoy going to the games myself, you’re completely missing the point already. When we try to entertain and justify any purchase, whether it is a physical good or service, our goal is to find enough value in that product. Is value for an experience strictly based on how much you would personally enjoy that experience?

How many times have you done something or gone somewhere to make someone else happy? If one other person’s happiness wasn’t the reason, you may have felt obligated to attend an event based on some responsibility you felt. I, personally, have almost never attended a funeral for my own pleasure.

Taking that notion into consideration, how would you be able to find more value in season tickets, for example. Well, growing up with a father who worked in an industry that was very competitive, his “clients” would often have to find ways to entice him to choose their services over their competition. When they couldn’t afford to drop their rates any further to gain his business, they worked to earn his loyalty.

More often than not, their efforts were based around offering experiences and not physical goods to achieve this. Whether it was a day on their fishing boat, a meal at their restaurant, or their season tickets for a game, the approach worked. Plain and simple, it was extremely effective. 

While you might not necessarily be on their multi-million-dollar business level yet, you shouldn’t shy away from tactics that work. There is no issue with operating on a much smaller scale, as the gesture you make could easily lead to a significant return on your investment. 

Our most recent season ticket purchase was a strategic move, in that we did not spend too much and we also chose a sport that we enjoy watching. This provided us with many options; whether it was attending a game together, giving both tickets away, or having one of us bring someone to the game.

The personal and professionals benefits were unquestionable and the investment paid off, but before you make the purchase, there are a few things to take into consideration. If you’re trying to follow a strict budget for your business and you plan on writing the expenses off, consider what you’ll pay for parking and other travel costs.

Also, make sure you have a way to get rid of the tickets, last-minute or in case of an emergency. Whether that means having a friend that will take them off your hands or having a way of reselling them, there is no greater waste of resources than not using them, or letting them expire.

Think outside the box; they don’t have to be season tickets to a sporting team or venue. Just remember, there are so many ways to seal the deal with a potential client, and this approach is used all over the world. It is extremely popular because it is fun and effective, so don’t shy away from something new. Control your purchase so the reward outweighs the risk.

Becoming More Efficient

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Nowadays, time is the most precious resource. While it’s nearly impossible to know what was going through people’s heads thousands (and even hundreds) of years ago, we know one fact. People live longer now than they did in the past. This increase in lifespan has only made (many people) want to live even longer and make the most out of their lives.

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Whether making the most means more money, more property, more fame or more experiences, more is more. The only way to accomplish more with less… efficiency. I want to look at an industry that is always forced to maximize their efficiency in order to stay profitable. The food industry, specifically eateries that serve fresh food, have grand challenges that need to be overcome.

One model that has helped turn new chains into billion dollar businesses has leaked into mom and pop shops. We recently saw this model being used at Fresh Pita, a family owned and operated Mediterranean/Middle Eastern eatery in Los Angeles. Even though the food is certainly fresh, they prepare everything similar to Chipotle and Subway so that they can quickly assemble custom orders.

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Here, they’re willing to sacrifice their need to combine flavor profiles to create signature dishes in order to increase their rate of turning out dishes and also give the customer what they want. It might back fire to a certain degree because the uncertain customers take longer to decide what they want, but the effort and desire to be more efficient in many ways is there.

By having nearly everything set up ahead of time and not meddling with beverages by having pre-packaged options, they can give better customer service and also hand-pack their falafel with every order.

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What do you do in your every day life to be more efficient? Being prepared can make a huge difference and save you tons of time, clearly.

Building Responsibility by… Fostering Kittens

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Taking care yourself is one thing, but taking care of someone else is a completely different situation. We’ve all gone through a long school or work day without eating. We forget about it. Far too often we think that our health is not nearly as important as a deadline for a paper or a work assignment. That’s not the case when you’re taking care of someone else. When they say “feed me” you respond in a different way.

Now, what if you made the choice to take care of that living creature, and what if there were many of them? Also, think about their ability to survive without your help. Finally, taking all of that into consideration, visualize doing it all for a bunch of kittens. It’s a lot of work, but it is rewarding.

Rewarding in what way? In many ways. You’ll feel great about the work you’ve done, but you’ll also develop new skill sets. Organization, cleanliness and time management are probably the abilities that you’ll build the most, in a short amount of time, but also attention to detail and perception. You’ll constantly be looking out for everything that might be going wrong because their health is your top priority.

Depending on the situation, you might need to be extra careful around them based on their health, and if they’re sick, you might even be responsible for providing them medication. You’ll develop some cooking and scientific ability in that, having to use syringes and mix different combinations of food and supplements. If they’re young and without a mother, you’re going to have to bottle feed them.

Kittens are everywhere and plenty live on the street, needing a good home. I’m not telling you to go out there and find some just to build some new skills, but consider fostering kittens to really give yourself a taste of being an adult. If you can take care of kittens from 2 weeks old to 10 weeks old and find them a home in the process, you have a bright future. Your responsibility level will be through the roof if you do it right.

Best Ways to Learn About Responsibility

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The Best Ways to Learn About Responsibility series is a way for you to consider how to help individuals develop one of the most important skill sets in the world. Responsibility is a core value that nearly every person and society understands and appreciates. It helps you at home, in school, at work and in public. Being responsible is not genetically passed down from generation to generation; it is acquire through certain experience.

While these would be effective for any individual, this series is catered towards teenagers. Why? They’re at an important intersection in their life where decisions now will make a significant impact on their future. Once you’re officially an adult, many would argue that you’re judged less based on your actions since your timeline is more open. As a teen, there are expectations of when to get a job, when to graduate high school and when to go to college.

Unfortunately, if you lack responsibility, it could throw that timeline off and lead to consequences down the road. And, with that being said, if we know one thing, it’s that time is the most valuable resource in the universe and as of right now, there’s no way to turn back the clock or freeze time. We have to use it while we have it.

Keep an eye out for the first entry in the series where we’ll tackle a very interesting topic, or approach to becoming responsible. It’s outside of the box, but the level of accountability is extremely high so it’s very effective. Stay tuned scholars!

The Problem with Fame

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ESPN just released their World Fame 100 list and… something feels wrong about it. Seeing Lebron James at number seemed… so wrong. Don’t get me wrong, Lebron James is an incredibly successful man, who works hard and should be recognized for over a decade of excellence. The problem is, I don’t think he is.

I think list is nearly a perfect mixture of what ESPN’s list and what the real list would look like. But this is the problem with fame and fortune; it’s a lot more about perception than anything else. One would hope that the people on the list and their egos aren’t inflated or deflated as a result of their placement, but I’m sure that’s not the case for all of them.

This isn’t about breaking down this list and making claims that international athletes like Federer, Nadal, Bolt and Messi need to be in the top 5. This isn’t about saying certain sports are more important than others, comparing ethnicities or even gender equality. This is about perception; it’s about the perception of others and how you allow that to impact how you perceive yourself… and others.

You can use something like this to work harder and improve, but remember, the best way to measure that growth isn’t necessarily by seeing if you’ve moved up on someone else’s list. Focus on yourself. But yes, for what it’s worth, my list would be very different from this list.