In this episode, we discuss how Kenny Roger’s song, “The Gambler,” is a song that you will teach a lot about how to navigate life.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista. In this podcast, my goal is to give you quick lessons that you can reflect on in your journal so you can grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually and have a better career, better relationships, and better personal finances while you enjoy your morning cup of coffee.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones. I’m also the founder of Grow With Joe, where I combine self-development coaching and financial planning for Latino Professionals.
At the end of today’s podcast episode, I’m going to give you a prompt question to reflect on in your journal. The idea is to take one to five minutes to reflect on today’s lesson and write a minimum of one paragraph on how you can apply the lesson in your life. You can use an actual journal, a word document like on Google Drive, or your note-taking app like Evernote. The idea is that you’re actually thinking about how to process the information to help you improve your life.
In today’s episode, we are going to talk about the need to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them. This is an amazing song by Kenny Rogers that teaches a lot of great lessons about life. One of the biggest things that trip up people is lost aversion and the sunk cost fallacy.
Loss aversion is the psychological trait that humans have where the value not losing something even if it’s better to lose that thing and move on. Sunk cost fallacy is a scenario where no matter how much money or energy you put into something, you’re never going to recover your money. Again, it’s just best to walk away and do something else.
In life, there are going to be so many things where we have to decide when to hold them or fold them. This can be with your relationships, your career, something financial, a hobby, pretty much anything. For me, I was in a 9-year marriage, and we decided it best to fold them. I don’t blame her or feel that there are reparations that need to be paid. We didn’t know what we ultimately wanted out of life and after nine years, we decided that we wanted things out of life. I’m not going to count everything we did for each other, I’m just going to take the lessons that I learned and move on with my life.
Now in my dating life since, I know what I should be looking for in a partner. I haven’t found the right person yet, so I’ve had to fold them, but luckily for me, I’ve folded much earlier than 9 years. And I know in the future when I find a partner, there are going to be rough patches, and if they are the one, I’m going to have to hold my hand and we can figure out a way to grow out of that rough patch.
To know when to hold them or fold them, you really have to know yourself as a person in terms of what you want out of life, what you’re willing to tolerate, the number of losses that you’re willing to take, and understand the cognitive bias that could cause you to make making bad decisions.
At my last business, I wasn’t doing very well and things were becoming unmanageable, so I decided to fold them and start my own thing. I was able to look into the future and I ask myself, what is the payoff and what is the cost I have to pay. I decided the cost was too much there and the opportunities were great somewhere else for me, so I walked away.
We’re all going to take losses in life, but don’t irrational about your chances of succeeding. In poker, you can be irrational about your chancing winning and this can cloud your judgment. Just because you won the last five hands, doesn’t increase the likelihood of you winning the next hand. Same thing with losing five hands in a row. The next hand that is dealt, has the same odds as the last five hands. Either the odds were in your favor or they we’re not. Just have the wisdom to know what to do on the next hand and it should increase the odds of you doing the right thing. And it’s also important to know that if you get pocket aces, you can either lose or win, but the odds are in your favor. So do what you can to stack the odds in your favor, and I mean ethically, and you can live a great life.
That’s it for today’s episode, to summarize it, like Kenny Rogers, we have to know when to hold them, and when to fold them. So understand that you’re going to have losses in the world, no need to get upset for too long, know how to move on with your life. Every minute you live in the past is a minute that you’re not getting back. It’s wise to analyze the past, but learn the lesson and move on as fast as possible. Life is not going to be perfect and we’re going to make mistakes with our decisions. The best thing is just to learn from them and then not make the same mistake twice in a row. Do this, and you should have more wins than losses.
So in your journal, ask yourself, what is a decision you need to make about holding them or folding them? What are the upsides and downsides of holding them? What are the upsides and downsides of folding them? How long is it going to take you to make a decision? Remember, if you don’t make a choice, you still made the choice to continue to hold to those cards. That may or may not be the best for you. So take some time to reflect and if you still don’t have an answer, then go see a professional.
Thanks for listening today! To get a free copy of my Audiobook “More You Know, More You Grow: How to get better every day” just go to my website growwithjoe.me/book and you can download it right there.
I have a quiz on my website that grades your inner circle, so if you want to find out if your inner circle is an A, B, C, D, or F, you can take that quiz at growwithjoe.me/quiz
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Thanks for joining me today and remember if you go with Joe, you can grow with Joe, cause Joe knows Dough.
*Music outro
