088 – You Are Not That Special

This is part 4 of a 10 part series about behavioral finance. [00:00:00] But before we get started, I want to let you know something that went down last week.   [00:00:06] My dad and I attended the Donald Driver Hall of Fame induction ceremony and for those of you who don't know, I'm from Wisconsin. I have a deep love for the Green Bay Packers. Do not hold that against me. Donald Driver was a great wide receiver and he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Packers have this big party to celebrate. Tickets are very expensive. You get a nice steak dinner. You get some wine, and appetizers. Even some things to take home with you. And the reason we went is my wife got us tickets for Father's Day. She had a real hard time getting the tickets. To be honest with you when she got those tickets I was thinking of myself it a lot of money. Do we really need to be spending this kind of money for my dad and I to attend this Donald Driver thing? And then we went in it was well worth it. Let me ask you - Are you building abundance in your cornerstones. Do you even know what your cornerstones are the most important things in your life like your family your friends your health maybe your career your experiences your spirituality and your finances?   [00:01:30] If you can identify what they are early and plan to build abundance in these cornerstones, you will end your life with zero regrets. Is it difficult to sit back and think of what your cornerstones are? No. I think you can do that. It's making a deliberate plan to add abundance in them on a consistent basis. That's the hard part. We build abundance without even thinking about it just by going about our day to day activities. But what if you were deliberate about it. What if what if you set a plan in all the things that you were going to accomplish within each cornerstone. Would you be working at the same job as you are right now or would you be taking actionable steps to get to your dream job. Would you simply be an okay dad or are you going to be a dad that is present in your kids’ lives. What are your cornerstones?   [00:02:42] Are you building abundance in your cornerstones. I'm guilty of it myself and I really need to thank my wife for being deliberate in setting up this experience with my dad. When I think about it my dad and I haven't done that many things together.   [00:03:03] We spend a lot of time together but not always just this one on one time. It was one of the best experiences of my life because I was standing right next to my dad. That my friends is real wealth.   [00:03:20] Let's get to the topic of the day. You are not that special.   [00:03:34] Now what I mean by that because you know what we're all special people. But when it comes to behavioral finance my friend you are not that special. I'm not that special either. So, this series we're on behavioral finance based on Dr. Daniels book The Laws of wealth and this is one of the laws. Dr. Daniel starts out with a quote in his book and his quote was from Chuck from the fight club He states, "you are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You're the same decaying organic matter as everything else." Well, I'm starting off on the right foot trying to get people to listen to this podcast. But let me ask you a question. Do you think that you're a better than average driver? Be honest because 90 percent of drivers believe they are better than the average driver. However, this is impossible.   [00:04:43] Fifty percent are better and 50 percent are worse. Ninety percent of people can't be better than the average driver although 90 percent of us think that we are. There's names for this kind of thinking too; illusionary superiority. That's one of them. Another one is the better than average affect. It's not only driving. We think that we're more honest than the average person.