Kay:
Hey Questers and a welcome, welcome. Happy Monday. It is April 19th, and this is episode 336. We have a quote for you today from one of the OG fathers of personal growth and motivation. The one and only Zig Ziglar.
Shi:
Mr. Zig Ziglar, who tells us on this fine Monday, “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.”
Kay:
I love this quote. I love Zig first off. I mean, American author, salesman, and motivational speaker. Many of us know of Zig Ziglar or have heard of him, but these are three small power-packed sentences that come out into one big life lesson.
Shi:
Right, and that life lesson is to have positive expectations. Be optimistic, prepare yourself and look for what can go, right? And then don’t be stupid. Don’t wear rose colored glasses. Be smart about it. Prepare for the worst and make sure that you’ve got some contingency plans in place and that you methodically assess all of your risk and go about things in a way that demonstrates your ability to look at the situation and assess what’s coming. Then whatever does come, you can capitalize on. So, like, ooh, it’s just so good.
Kay:
It is so good, and I think many people tend to get these two sentences mixed up. They understand the importance of them, but they often swap them in order of priority. So, the first two sentences, “Expect the best. Prepare for the worst.” Most people say I’m going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. That was something I heard growing up quite a bit was just, “well hope for the best, but prepare for the worst,” kind of like a credo that I feel like I heard a lot growing up. Always prepare for the worst. Always prepare for the worst. Expect the worst and hope for the best, but that’s not what Zig is telling us here. He’s saying that that needs to go in a different direction. You need to expect, not hope for the best, expect the best and prepare for the inevitability that something might go wrong.
Shi:
There’s nothing wrong with having a positive attitude, about looking at and hoping for and expecting that the very best possible outcome can happen and then to put action behind that which means you prepare for the worst. The action behind that is, “Look, I expect the best and I’m prepared for whatever comes my way.” If you are truly prepared for whatever comes your way, then what’s the harm in expecting the best? It only helps you feel better and enjoy your experience more. It really does set you up for that final sentence here, capitalize on what comes. When you are positively expecting what is coming, you are well-prepared and assessing your risks. Whatever comes across that plate then you’ve got some kind of orientation of what to do and how to use it to your advantage.
Kay:
Well, I mean, let’s just face it guys. Life is kind of hard. It’s difficult. It’s not always easy. Things happen. You can expect the best all day long and it still doesn’t go out exactly how you planned. Not always does the picture in our heads match the picture of reality. But when we can capitalize on reality, regardless of what happens, you’re always gaining. Do you understand that? If you can capitalize on reality whether the good thing that happened to you or the bad thing that happened to you, you are always gaining in the end and that’s the whole point of the game. You want to gain and not lose.
Shi:
On Mondays, we like to usually focus on some kind of financial advice or money advice in some way. So, really looking at this from that perspective, there’s always a way to gain. I mean, I think if we want to just go super practical, it’s about diversifying your portfolio. When we’re talking about money, this is investing in different things, not putting all of your eggs in one basket. Your own growth and your own personal portfolio, not a financial portfolio are the same way. Diversify – aka prepare for the worst. Why do we diversify our portfolios when it comes to money management? Because if the stock market crashes, you better hope you’ve got international bonds and real estate in there to help balance out that crash. That’s exactly what this quote is saying here whether it is for our financial or our personal portfolio. Expecting the best preparing for the worst and capitalizing on what comes is an excellent strategy to employ.
Kay:
Alrighty, gang, we want to help you gain here on this Money Monday. So, as Shila said in that quote, we’ve got three short sentences, which means that we’ve got a little bit of an interesting quest for you today. It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure!
Shi:
Yeah!
Kay:
It is Money Monday Choose your Own Adventure Quest. Today we want you to think a little bit differently. So, if you’re the type of person that normally expects the best but doesn’t necessarily prepare for the worst then we want you to put out a little bit of money, just even if it’s $5, $10. Put it into some form of savings account. If it’s not an account, put it into an envelope and set it aside and just get started, or maybe make a different spending decision today. If you’re the type of person that usually prepares for the worst and doesn’t expect the best then we want you to get out there and find a reason for positive expectation. Are you ready?
Kay & Shi:
Let’s quest!
