Spent Costs

“The only way you can get ahead is to fail early, fail often, and fail forward.” ~ John C. Maxwell

Throughout life we all learn more than we can possibly remember, but there is always at least one thing that sticks with you from every subject you study.  Economics was a brief fascination of mine about a year ago (2012), while I was taking a micro-economics class.  While studying this field I encountered every term from game theory to yield, from gross to deficit, but there is one term which stuck out.  This term really has had more applications to life than economics, specifically in the field of failure.

The economic concept of a spent cost basically states that you should not consider costs that have already been made and that you cannot change when deciding on future investments.  Future investments should not depend on spent costs.   This is a slightly shallow definition, let's apply it to real life example.

I have failed many a time; recently I felt as if I "bombed" a test and that really bummed me out.  But I remembered what Robert Hillyer once said, “If you are doing your best, you will not have time to worry about failure.”  This prompted me to reconsider my focus, I began to eliminate the spent cost from my future.  This not only made me more productive, because I also realized that everyone has spent costs.  As Carole Harder said,  “87% of all things you worry about either never happen or are beyond your control anyway.”  Ironically I did just fine on the test, but I leaned an important lesson.  First, learn from your mistake, and then, if you can't change it, eliminate it.

What spent costs do you need to eliminate today?

Ps. For further reading on this concept, I'll make a post of some content I found in  Everyday Greatness; by Stephen R. Covey and David K. Hatch; Pg. (356-360) "TWO WORDS TO AVOID(IF ONLY), TWO WORDS TO REMEMBER(NEXT TIME)"

Sincerely,

-_-_- 

"7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ" ~ Ephesians 1:7-9 

Jordan D. Ulmer

Chuck Norris Solved It

"The same equations have the same solutions." ~ Richard P. Feynman

Feynman was a phenomenal physicist, but surprisingly the scope of this statement soars beyond the realm of Quantum Physics.  Just today I realized the truth of this claim as it applies to the following scenario:
Problem: If our Dorm Hall doesn't start picking up it's trash EVERY resident will be fined $50.
Explanation: I am in college I have no money and would rather not possess (-$50).

Solution:  A while ago I saw a presentation {trend-something I'll add it later if I think of it}, and this presentation talked about knowing your audience, your customer on a fundamental level.   Ok, well most of the guys in my Hall are pure red-necks.  This reminded me that the example given in the same presentation was for a roadside trash problem in the state of Texas.  

The state of Texas had been running an advertisement which featured an Indian with a tear down his cheek.  However the problem persisted, so they hired a professional team to go and document what type of people litter in Texas, this took a lot of time and money but the results were quite predictable: "middle aged males, with pickups"....this is a dictionary definition of the word "redneck".

In other words all I had to do was mimic the solution that the state of Texas used.  What was that solution?... CHUCK NORRIS!!!

SUCCESS, so now I get to my point of epitome.  Mind you I have only had this poster up in a few places for ONE DAY.  Today, a guy from another part of our hall came into our hall lobby and threw a bunch of leaves on top of some of the guys as a joke.  Result: one of the guys in the room says "Ahhh, don't *make CHUCK mad*!!!!!!!" and promptly seeks out and attains a vacuum cleaner, and vacuums the entire lobby.  It looks like I won't have to pay a $50 fee any time soon.

Moral of the story:  Has the problem you are currently facing already been solved for you?  If so implement the solution, and watch the fireworks!

Happy problem solving!

Sincerely,
 -_-_-
"7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ" ~ Ephesians 1:7-9
Jordan D. Ulmer