The Monopoly of Decision Making
For those who do not know me- I’m Evgenia Brodsky, David Maher’s wife. So, I guess, that makes me the always “right” of Right Brain Insights.
On a rainy Saturday night, Dave and I decided to play a game of Monopoly. As hard as it is to believe, I had never played this ubiquitous game before. So, as expected, I lost the first round.
Not settling for defeat, I challenged my husband to a rematch. Surprise-surprise, he won again! And then again! I started questioning how it could be possible, as I always thought of myself as one of the smarter cookies in the jar. As I was losing the fourth game, I concentrated on Dave’s thought process. It hit me then- my husband is so good at Monopoly because it is similar to what Right Brain Insights offers. I think that this was the moment when I truly understood what my husband did for living.
In Monopoly, players are provided with a set of facts about your opportunities- the price of properties you can purchase, their mortgage value, how much rent they can bring and so on. Then there are other considerations- your current position on the board, how much money you have and how much you can get from your current properties, what your anticipated and potential expenses are and when and if you will get paid. There is obviously an element of luck- the roll of dice. If you think about it, this looks like a lot like running your own business, does it not?
As Dave was explaining to me his understanding of Monopoly, I realised that in order to play this game well, one should analyse all this data, weigh their opportunities against their current circumstances, ascertain the worse case scenario should the dice land you in hot water and understand the risks involved with each potential course of action. Only then can one make an informed decision of whether to invest everything in buying Mayfair and Park Lane.
My background is in intellectual property law, and I am not particularly business savvy. If I were to open my own firm, I’d want to focus on what I do best- the law. The financial side of business and the decisions associated with it would stress me, especially because my brain is not trained to think in a manner described above. And even if it did, would I have time and energy to work with my data at the required level of detail when I should be servicing my clients, sourcing more work and balancing my personal life on top of that? Probably not.
Watching Dave destroy me in Monopoly and imagining myself in a business owner’s shoes, made me truly see the need in someone who would assist a decision maker in reaching an informed conclusion based on identification and accurate analysis of multiple factors.
So, if you are a business owner who is way too familiar with the dark side of running your enterprise, then do yourself a favour and catch up with Dave for a coffee!