Episode #23 The 1928 Great American (Transcontinental) Footrace and Your Opportunities

Do business or career opportunities present themselves to you?  Do you wonder if you are making the right decision in choosing one opportunity over another? Wouldn’t you like a set of rules that can will you choose the right opportunity?  Join Rick and Brandon as they examine the opportunity costs that their ancestor Louis Alfano considered in attempting the 1928 Transcontinental Footrace from Los Angeles to New York.  Learn some tools that you can use in your career or business to take advantage of your life’s opportunities.

• List your business or professional opportunities; i.e.,
  1. Purchase of equipment
  2. Additional education or training
  3. Purchase of another business
  4. Purchase of a new type of services

 

1. Is the opportunity in line with your company vision?
   1. For example: the opportunity to dance clearly was not in his vision to win the race. In fact, the risk of injury, not to mention fatigue for the next day’s race, created a disincentive to dance.
2. Does the opportunity draw you from your core competency?
   1. If you need some guidance of core competency, see our podcast The Walt Disney Strategy and Focusing on your Core Competency
   2. I doubt if my grandfather’s core competency was that of a dancer. He obviously liked to dance. I recall him bouncing out of a wheelchair on crutches only to hop to the Tarantella when he was well into his 80’s.
3. Are you competent enough to analyze an opportunity, or do you need to hire a consultant?
   1. Know what you don’t know. Don’t fall for fast-talking sales persons and slick presentations before doing your homework.
   2. If you believe that you still don’t understand the opportunity, hire a consultant that specializes in that field. If you are still not satisfied, pass and wait for the next opportunity. Sometimes our greatest value in this regard is keeping our clients out of bad investments.
   3. My grandfather was wise enough to make the decision not to dance, but he probably thought what can one dance hurt? I guess those “flappers” were just too much for him.
4. Don’t make decisions based with your “heart” or your “gut instinct.”
   1. Find a close friend, or spouse that understands your business and bounce it off them.
   2. You can try your core workers or employees for feedback.
   3. If you are looking to open a new business, check out our podcast How to Open a New Business through the Lens of the Wildflower Century Bike Rally.
   4. The last point certainly was my grandfather’s downfall. He certainly made this decision on the basis that he loved to dance, not to mention that he loved to be the center of attention. His personal desires trumped his business sense this time.
5. Use some measures after you made the decision
   1. Payback method
      1. Initial investment/cost savings.
      2. The shorter the payback period, the better.
   2. Accounting Rate of Return (ARR)
      1. Simple measure of profitability. No time value of money is considered
      2. Net income/your investment
      3. Don’t forget to subtract fixed overhead from any capital improvement
   3. Cost/Benefit Analysis
      1. What is the cost as relative to the benefit you will receive?