10
2009
When I was in Outeniqua High School in George, many decades ago, I started playing golf. I had dreams of becoming the Tiger Woods of that decade. I even went for lessons with the Pro-Golfer at the George Golf Club. After 3 lessons he decided to rather spend his time drowning his sense of failure at the bar than to try to beat the odds. He did advise me, that if I want to make golf my career, I should accept the offer from the circus!
You see, I can hit a golf ball that it thinks and acts like a boomerang. Therefore I can tee off with the same ball repeatedly without moving an inch – the ball always lands right back in front of me where it started. Real honest to goodness circus stuff.
The Pro-Golfer tried to solve the problem by advising me to close my club face and when I start hooking the ball consistently, I can open up the face – and off he went to nurture the sorrow about his failure.
I don’t play golf anymore, because I never really played golf, I was always looking for balls in the rough and out of bounds. No fun in that. So remember, I don’t play golf any more.
About 2 years ago I was in PE for business and the guest house where I stayed was opposite the golf course. I could hear the golfers practising. One day when a client did not pitch up for an appointment, I walked over and watched them practice. (Yes, some of the ladies had very good legs, I watched that too;)). Then I started thinking about what I saw and realised that the Pro-Golfer in George was probably more interested in his beer than my golf, anyway. His solution was the worst possible!
Analysing the problem (and I excel at analysing things) I realised slicing the ball is the result of the club face going over the ball from outside to inside, and that can be caused by a number of things, which is unnecessary to list here.
Having analysed it that way, I started practising in my mind, visualizing the whole process. About 2 days later another client did not keep his appointment and I walked over to the practice range, got a golf club and some balls and started practising. My goal was to hit at least 40 out of 50 balls straight. In my first session I ended up with 30 straight shots and in the second I did 41. Mission accomplished.
This is how I did it and that is the object of this post (and I still don’t play golf):
If there is a problem, solve the problem, don’t try funny things that could only exaggerate the problem. If there is a problem with a golf swing, correct the swing, work on the swing until it works, don’t close the club face!
Keep your head down. Forget about the good legs in front of you or the PE Pro-Golfer watching you with a smile. This is about you and your objectives and screw the Pro-Golfer. He might be just like the one in George, who knows.
Keep your eye on the ball. It is about the ball! Focus, focus, focus. Keep your eye on the ball. If you don’t keep your head down and your eye on the ball, you will hit the ball on the head so that it has a life-long migraine, and perhaps even hit the lady with the good legs. Which straight thinking man wants to do that? 
Watch how you position yourself towards the ball. I used an extra golf club on the ground to ensure that my body actually points in the direction that I want to hit the ball. I promise you, a small change in your position has a huge effect to where the ball goes.
Concentrate on your swing. The swing must be parallel to the club on the ground. A good swing (says a non-golfer) is controlled and hits the ball with a square club face and it has a beautiful, solid sound that is easily recognised.
Let the club and the ball do the work. Don’t try to hit the ball as far as possible. Way back in George I always tried to make every hole a hole in one, even on the par 5 holes. Suddenly in PE, when I tried for direction and not distance, I found that I could hit the ball straight, and quite a distance.
By going back to the basics, I think I have solved my slice. I still have to try it with a real game of golf, but I am not scared to accept an invitation to golf any more. Before I go out on the course I will visit the practice range a time or two. I will visualise a lot and I will probably not give Tiger Woods a run for his money, but I will not embarrass anybody.
If you need investment translation on this, just ask …
29
2009
Opportunity cost is an economic concept that means that with every choice and opportunity there is an associated cost of opportunities lost. Since economics is the science that studies the allocation of scarce resources, it makes sense. We never have enough money or time, so we are constantly juggling time and money – trade-offs- and that’s how opportunity cost enters the picture. Now we don’t have to be rocket scientists to realise it is important to choose the option with the lowest opportunity cost to maximise returns.
Let me explain it this way. When I was at school, the school regularly showed a film on a Saturday evening. It was a favourite social event and fairly well attended. And I suspect it was more for the girls than the movies – except for Piet Maritz, me.
I like surfing and fishing and being at the beach, as my Facebook Profile says, deep at heart I am a beach bum. So I never asked any girl to go to the movies with me, because I was too scared that I would be surfing and the waves are good and then I would have to leave the water just because I had a date with some girl. And when I did get to the movies, I quickly discovered, the girls did not like to be asked as you walked into the hall. To go to the movies with a girl, I had to run the risk of losing good surfing. The opportunity cost for taking a girl to the movies was way to high. So that I cannot remember ever taking a girl to the school movie during my 5 years in high school! Today I wonder about my priorities and if I have changed at all … (Just calculate the opportunity cost of marriage! Do you know the definition of a wedding ring? A marital tourniquet to stop circulation!))
Anyway, the point is that everything we do carries an opportunity cost. I can buy a new car or another property; I can buy shares or go on vacation; I can buy this property, but then I cannot buy that one; or I can buy this property or two others.
What does it mean? It means that when I consider two alternatives, A and B, and my potential returns on the opportunities, I have to ask: “What am I forfeiting to do this investment?” And what am I loosing, because of that?
So opportunity cost is something different from accounting cost, but a very important concept in determining your course of action.
And, as my own life illustrates, the concept of opportunity cost has a much wider application than just money, economics and finances!
Opportunity Cost and Star Baseball Player
So, did the Management Make the right choice of Players?