Do You Think Like a Gambler?

As a business owner, you have to be a risk taker, but this is much different from being a gambler. A risk taker takes CALCULATED risks with a large postive chance of payout. He risks on things over which he has at least some control. This is different from a gambler's mentality.

I am not a gambler. I get no pleasure from watching my money vanish so quickly. Fortunately I have never had the good fortune of getting "lucky" and winning a large amount of money with little or no effort. If I had, maybe I would like gambling more.

But there is something I call "Gambler's Mentality". It is something that I think gambler's share along with certain business people. I think it is a detrimental way to think. It is based in fear and fear-based decision making is almost never the best position to work from.

The gambler's mentality goes something like this "This isn't working well, but if I keep at it a little bit longer, my luck will change and I'll make up for all these losses"

The two pricing models I wrote about a few days ago are both variations of this way of thinking and are why I don't use or recommend either pricing structure from that article. Rather than set unrealistic goals and then systematically lower them until you are desperate, or conversely, systematically raising your rates by the week hoping to find someone desperate enough to pay your inflated fees, why not quote a fee that is fair to you and then gladly and graciously accept it when you perform the show?

A gambler bets $10 on a long shot and ends up winning $1,800. Rather than being happy he screams "I should have put down $20! I always bet $20! Why did I only bet $10!?" This is Gambler's Mentality.

When you book a job and three weeks before the show someone offers you three times the fee to flake out and do their event instead, you should not even be tempted. You can't have a gambler's mentality if you want to build a long-standing business. Don't get greedy. Set a fair price and gladly and graciously accept your fee with no guilt and no wondering how much more you might have gotten.

JOKE: The secret to wealth is simple…Buy low and sell high.

MORAL: You don't have to buy at the LOWEST and sell at the HIGHEST.

--Julian Franklin

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