Why Is It So Hard To Play Fair?

NFL Coaches Use Programs To Shield Their Lip Movements

Professional football teams hire lip readers to see what the other coach is saying when he calls his next play.  That is why they hold their play lists over their mouths when they call the next play.  To the 'broken eye' of view, some would consider this move a 'clever' idea.  It only ensures failure.  Unfortunately, failure is not immediate...only certain.  When you work to gain advantage by some 'clever' move that does not involve the art of playing of the game, you enter the gray area of cheating to win.  When you cheat...you lose.  Oh you might not immediately notice it, but your business will eventually suffer more than you care to manage.  And you will manage the results of your cheating without recognizing the root of your challenges.  Your business challenges will not be fair enough to you to point directly back to the areas of cheating you have considered 'clever.'  It is a very unfair process.

Many Suffer At The Hands Of Cheaters!

Rubbing up against the laws of compensation by cheating to win will only guarantee some losses to occur that will interrupt your long term efforts to succeed.  You are no longer competing with the art of football when you hire a professional to read the opposing coaches lips as he calls his next play.  You are cheating.  Period.  You may win some games because you know what to do before it needs to be done.  But you are violating the laws of compensation and they will turn heavily away from your efforts.  You will eventually fail.  The laws of compensation are real.  Just because they are invisible does not mean they do not exist.  Trust me, they are there and working their magic just fine.  They do not need the cheaters approval to do their magic.  You may call this kind of cheating 'clever' marketing or 'clever' strategy but it still remains a form of cheating.  You are cheating.  Stop it.  You are also killing your business success when you cheat.

Why is it so hard to play fair?  Because your competition is cheating and you know it.  You also believe they are winning due to their cheating.  Your competitions 'clever' ways are gaining your attention and you begin to believe they are gaining an advantage over you for it.  That perspective makes it very hard to play fair.   

This kind of 'clever' thinking has become so normal in the world of marketing that most business owners believe they need to participate in order to compete and win.  Not true, but it is very hard to tell how 'clever' policies eventually cause some serious losing strings of results.  The cause and effect relationship between winning and losing is very gray.  As a result, much of the time we cannot tell what helps us win and what helps us to lose.  Let's list some examples of how we all cheat and consider it 'clever.'

The moment I heard the early allegations about the New England Patriots video taping of the coaches signals on the opposing teams to gain an edge on how to beat the opponent, I knew if it was true and 'clever' actions like this were part of their plan to win, as a businessman who understands the laws of compensation, their winning dynasty was over.  The mysterious laws of compensation would bear out new and unfavorable results for that business model.  Given some time and a string of mysterious unfavorable circumstances their business model would eventually need to manage the destruction of their current success.  It would be a matter of certainty.  I hope they enjoyed their short run dynasty, because it is now gone.  I do not necessarily care much about any teams in American pro football.  Pro football is not my issue.  My issue is to express to business owners how the laws of compensation are real.  I use this example because it captured widespread media attention.  It is a glowing example of the way 'clever' methods of operation interferes with the success results of a business model.  Pay attention.  It is never about winning a game...it is always about how well you do the work to build a healthy business model.

How do we cheat?  How do we make 'clever' moves?

This might be a good time to ask the banking industry, the mortgage industry, the insurance industry and the real estate industry how 'clever' business models work?  Just because no laws were broken does not mean the laws of compensation were not violated.  The laws of compensation were heavily ignored in this combination of industry efforts.  How did their balance sheets respond to those violations?  Do you not see this?

What The Heck Happened?

Just because laws are passed to allow a second mortgage on a home, at 125% of the value of that home...does not mean performing these moves is financially responsible.  Just because laws support these allowances does not mean it is a good idea.  Just because policies are made to require no down payment commitments, no principal payments for three years, and no 'good credit' requirements prior to giving out a loan does not mean these 'clever' moves are fiscally responsible.  They are tremendously irresponsible and violate the laws of compensation hands down.  But they were 'clever' moves and created a huge bubble of benefit for a small group of players that did not take into consideration who may be damaged by the performance of those 'clever' acts.  Some banks and players did not bite.  They understand the laws of compensation well enough to refrain from getting caught up in the perpetuating cycle that fed this 'clever' series of mistakes.  Do not hear what I am not saying, buyers also carry a good portion of the blame in this fiasco.  The consumer must shoulder part of the blame when they, too, decided to ignore responsible purchasing as they tried to get more for less, avoiding economic laws.  I know the buyers escaped the run of blame but they shoulder this process by honoring its offer.  People are not that stupid...they just get confused and honor the romance of 'clever' policies.  And just in case we get confused, we are those people.  It is us, not them.

Pay attention.  If you are stretching some truths, getting 'clever', in your advertising and marketing efforts that is designed to attract more customers to buy from your business you are destined to fail.  It is a certain event.  Get used to it.  You are not so special that you will be able to avoid the realities that the laws of compensation will deliver.  It may take time and it may show up in some other area of your business model, but you will pay for the consequences of your untruthful and 'clever' thinking.  You can spit, get mad, deny, cover up, disbelieve, justify, modify and ignore these truths...your payment will still appear.  The pure laws of compensation do not need your approval to perform their work.

Why do we get 'clever' ideas that cross the line of fairness?

We get 'clever' because we are too close to the moment.  We do not have a big enough dream that is far enough away from our daily decisions and activities.  As a result, we focus all of our current energy and efforts on the decisions at hand and try to manage those immediate decisions with too much desire to make them work now.  Our now has become way too immediate.   We fail to recognize how our immediate decisions will effect our long term performance.  Long term is too far away from our current thinking.  We need to win now and prevent our competition from taking our immediate opportunities away from us.  Who cares about ten years from now when bills need to be paid today?  If only we can get a good 'clever' victory...we can win enough gains to make today easier to do.  That is exactly how we cross the line.  That is also exactly how we begin the destruction of our long term success.

Pay attention to this detail.  Be strong, courageous and operate clean.  Play the game of business for the games sake and leave the cheating, the 'clever' mechanics to someone who has decided to fail long term.  Just pay your toll and get on with managing the best you know how.

See you next time....