The house doesn’t always win, but every element of casino gaming is weighted towards us leaving our chips on the table. Blackjack offers the greatest odds, with a 49 percent chance of success, but there’s a caveat: one must adhere strictly to the rules of play. Because Blackjack is not a game of chance, it’s a game of probabilities, odds, and mathematics. There is a parallel with life.
To win at Blackjack, one must play a rigorously consistent game. For example, always hitting 16s and soft 17s. Taking a card is not dependent on how lucky one feels at the moment or on an assessment of how the cards are running—it is impossible to predict the next card in a 5-deck shoe, unless you’re Rainman, in which case thank you for reading this post.
So, First Rule: play an absolutely strict, correct game, and bet the same amount each time.
Second Rule: seize advantage plays and bet big. For example, double-down situations and splitting 8s and aces. These opportunities present a player’s greatest (though still slight) advantage against the house.
These two principles—consistency and opportunity—apply directly to life.
In order to be happy and successful requires consistency. Consistency is a superpower. If we write every day, we will finish that book. If we run every day, we will get in shape. If we make sales calls every day, we will make more sales.
What’s the opposite of consistency? Randomness. Try being random with work, with relationships, with any goal, and see how that turns out. Woody Allen once said, “80 percent of success is showing up.” Sahil Bloom at the Curiosity Chronicle writes: “Never bet against the guy who keeps showing up.”
We show up. We do the work. It’s not about what we feel like doing at the moment, it’s about following through with what we know we need to do to achieve a goal. While there’s an enormous role for intuition in a happy life, the feelings that sabotage our work are usually what Stephen Pressfield calls Resistance: laziness, procrastination, self-pity, self-doubt. We need to push those feelings away and simply get on with it.
Just like playing BlackJack. Consistency is our friend.
Conversely, when an opportunity presents itself, seize it. Carpe diem! Human beings crave safety and predictability and have a way of talking themselves out of a fortuitous moment. “There will be other times, I’m too busy, maybe when the kids are older.” I’m here to tell you that the things you end up regretting most in life are the things you didn’t do.
That’s it for now. See you at the casino of life.