Thursday, January 19, 2006

Surf Philosophy: Setting A Goal

Did not surf today, so a bit of philosophy today.

I am reading an introductory book about business accounting (of all of the books) right now. Along the pages, there is a chapter on "Why you were scolded by your boss when you completely sold out your product." Since this is a surfing BLOG, let's say you sold all of the 200 StokeMaster T-Shirts, and you ordered before noon. You might call me and tell me expecting me to give you a word or two of praise. "I sold all of the 200 shirts." To which, I would say, "What? You sold all out that quickly? You idiot!" You might be puzzled why I was angry. Now if you think about it, a bit though, if you have sold all 200 of it by noon, by the store closure for that day, you probably could have sold 300. Suppose that you ordered 350 and the original cost was $7.00 and we are selling it for $15.00 then the profit for selling the 200 is $1600. If you sold 300 so you have netted $2400 and did not sell the 50 of them so you have taken a loss of $350 at that point so the total profit is $2050. Of course, next morning, you will do a Sale and get rid of the rest of the 50 for $12.00 each then you get back $250, so you have basically made $2300.

Why I am telling you all these.

Well the whole point of this is that by setting a goal a bit higher, you might actually end up gaining more than you've originally bargained for.

So goes with setting your goal in anything, and for surfing too. It is worth setting your surfing goal a bit higher and work towards it. Even if you did not get quite there in the end, you may have gotten a bit better than if you would your set to the level of "what you can do comfortably." And what you might think initially is a risky loss is well offset by a bit of additional progress you've made. I don't think this has nothing to do with being overly competitive, but it has a lot to do with getting to the opportunity you are actually entitled to.

It really struck in my head clearly this time, why setting a bit higher goal is often needed.

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