Stay Unpredictable and Earn Your Riches

Success is a result of perfecting the obvious, and then executing the opposite.

The riches are hidden in engaging the unpredictable.

When you are good at the something, you have to compete with everyone else who is trying to be good  too. In a crowded field there’s only so much reward to go around. Whereas, doing something that is not obvious puts you in the position of having the field to yourself.

You always want to be in a position where people can’t defend against you.

For example, I played water polo in high school. You have to have strong legs to play the game well. Unfortunately, I only had one strong leg. My right leg was impaired from having polio. When I had to thrust my body out of the water to shoot the ball, I would tilt slightly to the right and my shooting arm would not come out of the water enough to make a strong throw at the goal. The competition knew this and would over guard me on the right side and more often than not take the ball away from me. So I decided to do the opposite of what was anticipated.  Instead of trying to shoot the ball straight and hard, I would fake a throw to the goal and then lob the ball softly over the goalie’s head where it would land in the far corner of the net.

I was the only player in our league to use the lob shot, so defenses were not set up to defend the unanticipated tactic. It was always good for at least one goal a game, and in part contributed to helping me to become a first string player my senior year.

Stay interesting my friends,  do the unanticipated.