The news is dominated by protesting, rioting, looting, and fighting. In my sports investing world, the players, coaches, and teams are now the ones who believe they know best and their advice is exactly what everyone needs to hear so we can get through this together. MLB and the players’ union cannot agree on how to split billions of dollars and have the season on the brink of collapse. We are constantly having to sift through the negative to find the positive in our daily lives. Sometimes the hardest part is being mentally capable of that battle and grind. I am a sports investor; I see life through a similar lens. I must find the truth in the data, game flow, narrative, and other facts thus I sift through multifaceted dimensions of information to find the positive expected value on my wagers. It is hard work. You must stay disciplined, focused, ever-learning, and adapting your skills. Life evolves know matter if you are a schoolteacher, a barista, a carpenter, or yes, a sports investor. The skillset I have developed and acquired allows me to make these statements that I believe can help anyone revisit their mental state of mind thus allow themselves to become Next Level in life as well as sports investing.
The narratives are not to be read or heard until you can CREATE the narrative from the depth of information you have gathered. You may not always have all the information required to make the absolute decision, yet you will always have enough information to make the most logical decision so you must act or you will not move forward. You see, we need to act and think based on information WE gather, or WE learn to use. WE then make a narrative we believe in, trust, and build from so we evolve ourselves into happier, focused, results-driven Next Level people.
Ok, what are narratives? Narratives are storylines. They can be different depending on who is listening or who is watching. Narratives can be used to sell ideas, influence thoughts, support decision making, and change your outlook on life. Letting unsubstantiated narratives guide you is extremely dangerous. A narrative is NOT always yours, but it is presented or heard in ways that make you feel like it is yours. In a sports investing way, a narrative could be something like Team A is 20-5 ATS on Sundays when playing 1 pm games. In a life kind of way, the 6 pm news presentation of the stories are narratives that influence the way you feel and believe about something. Who created this narrative for you to believe? It was not you. You saw it likely on the internet or in some article in a magazine. Often they even have a fact-based element to it. Factual data is used by news coverage, coaches, leaders, and bosses to support their agendas. They spin the points so it fits their narrative (storyline) so you will follow along. Life/investing is about learning and gathering your own information, then applying and adapting what you learned to move forward by not following along. Utilize the forward momentum to evolve and grow. Developing your skills and move forward (act on decisions) faster. The key is to create your own narrative via the information and not look for information to support the narrative! The information needs to be “read” (creating a flow or storyline from itself), in this instance, I am referring to read as an analytical breakdown and putting the pieces together to create that flow (narrative). If you always backtrack to the source of the narrative that influenced you, you can break it down to pull out the information thus it’s validity. By doing this, you will NOT get trapped into false narratives, you will live a life of with more meaning, you will have self-respect, you will feel you have merit and substance as you are in charge of your own well being. You do not have to be told or shown daily by the tv how to feel about yourself. Take the bull by the horns, find the information; cultivate it. Turn it into actionable narratives you create thus you move forward as a Next Leveler and someone who not only likes their life but is a good sports investor as well.
