Walk & Know Ball
I had a pretty good day a couple of weeks ago when it was announced on Permanent Equity’s main Slack channel that I had won both PE’s March Madness pool and that month’s step challenge.
I walk and know ball, I guess.
But there is some method to my madness, so if you want to try to replicate this impressive double next year, here’s how…
My March Madness strategy combines two elements: betting on underappreciated favorites and teams I root against.
The former approach is espoused annually by The Wall Street Journal. Simply pick the best team that few others are picking to win it all. This year that happened to be Michigan and, lo and behold, it worked out. I will say, I was pretty pumped the day the brackets were revealed and I saw that 70% of the people in the PE pool had picked either Duke or Arizona to cut down the nets, and just Kyle and me had opted for Big Blue.
The latter approach I call “Happiness Hedging,” and I adopted it after the 2013 tournament when I had picked my alma mater and #2-seeded Georgetown to advance all the way to the Final Four, only to have them dunked on and dumped out of the tournament unceremoniously in the first (technically second, because of the goofy play-in games) round by 15-seed Florida Gulf Coast.
That ended up being the saddest March Madness of my life: bracket busted and favorite team eliminated. I vowed to never let that happen again.
So now I always pick against the teams I want to win and for Duke, UConn, Alabama, etc. to advance. And if those teams do win, it’s great for my bracket. If they don’t, haha, schadenfreude. (Side note: I had Duke defeating UConn in the Elite Eight this year since I dislike them more, so I even got to enjoy Braylon Mullins’ buzzer beater.)
As for prevailing in a step challenge, the key is to adopt a walk & talk policy.
This is to say that for every one-on-one meeting or call that’s asked of me, I ask to take it while walking. Holly and I have our loop. Nikki and I another. Emily and I a third. And when our CEO Brent and I really need to talk something through, we take the extra long loop around Stephens Lake. What’s more, if someone sends me a Zoom link, I ask that they call my cell instead so I can get my steps in – and encourage them to do the same.
My experience is that when you’re walking & talking, the conversations are more productive, everyone feels energized afterward, and that even the focus is higher since you can’t be distracted by your phone or computer. And since you can’t really walk while reviewing materials, the construct forces everyone to come prepared, so you can cut right to the chase.
– Tim
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