By Forrest Blake
After watching the moving Beautiful Mind, I began researching John Nash’s Nobel prize winning thesis on game theory. It will be very difficult to condense all of his brilliance into a concise email. My goal is to give you a few good points to think about out of the volumes of information I have reviewed.
Nash believed that the human mind could accomplish anything with mathematical ideas. We are going to focus on his strategy from his perspective. Nash describes cooperative games to mean a situation involving a set of players, pure strategies, and payoffs. He visualized a transaction as the outcome of either a process of negotiation or else independent strategizing by individuals each pursuing his or her own interest. Instead of defining a solution directly, he suggested developing a strategy that ask what reasonable condition would need to be satisfied, given the any division of gains. He then posited four conditions and, using an ingenious mathematical argument, showed that, if the axioms (needs of the parties) held, then unique solution existed that maximized the product of the participants’ utilities. Essentially, he reasoned, how gains are divided reflects how much the transaction is worth to each party and what other alternatives each have. This gives him the highest possibility of successes by mathematically analyzing the likelihood of the individual result. Therefore, predicting the future outcome of any negotiations.
Clearly, golf is a game. Does the Game Theory apply? The answer is . . . YES. If we visualize the outcome of any round based on historical situations, then the result will be similar to the last 100 rounds we played. The only way you change the equilibrium of your golf game is to change the strategy. This could be taking a course management lesson or changing your swing at GolfTEC. It possibly, might be as simple as changing the environment and taking a vacation in Scotland.
“If you’re going to develop exceptional ideas, it requires a type of thinking that is not simply practical thinking.” John Nash
By Forrest Blake
In today’s environment we are forced to be doers and not thinkers. Our time is spent scheduling daily task, without consideration of whether those tasks have any relationship to our ultimate goals. Saturated with e‑mails, phone calls, pages, meetings and rushing home to the family and a whole additional set of time sensitive tasks. With all of these “To do’s” and interruptions, how could a person ever clear their mind to think, especially focused thinking? The difference between computers and humans is that humans have the ability to adapt to real-world situations. We think creatively, out of the box, or do we? Computers react to input form the user, then quickly process the task with the underling software program. Sound familiar?
Let’s look at the benefits or creating a habit of focused thinking?
1. Gives the ability to appraise likely solutions to problems.
2. Vision of the entire scope of a project before it begins.
3. Understanding of the ramifications of each action.
4. Developing strategies to eliminate wasted time.
5. Effective decision making.
6. Eliminate starting projects with the wrong set of criteria, established without much thought, and then having to start over again.
7. Time to surround yourself with the best people to support and execute any business activity.
8. Reflecting on mistakes to make them a learning experience.
9. Identifying your talents, then exploiting them. Delegating everything else to people, who’s talents you don’t possess.
10. The ability to ask the right questions.
Being the CEO of three companies, focused thinking is mandatory. Most of the vision, actions and results come out of a daily routine of focused thinking.
I cherish quite time I have to think. Usually, it is between 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. in the morning when there are no distractions. Sometimes, I just sit and stare out the window as the sun rises in the horizon. It doesn’t take long until the mind is clear and the ideas began to flow. The key element for anyone is to make the commitment to spend time with their thoughts. If we could just slow down long enough to think, amazing things will happen.
Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.” Joel Barker
“Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.” Napoleon Hill
“Many have no happier moments than those that they pass in solitude, abandoned to their own imagination, which sometimes puts sceptres in their hands or miters on their heads, shifts the scene of pleasure with endless variety, bids all the forms of beauty sparkle before them, and gluts them with every change of visionary luxury.” Johnson
“The shorter way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time.” Mozart
“Concentration is the ability to think about absolutely nothing when it is absolutely necessary.”
Ray Knight
“Often he who does too much does too little.” Italian Proverb
By Forrest Blake
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The owner of 12 GolfTEC Centers here in Sothern California, Sky Golf LLC, has great news on their continuing success of its business. The fiscal year end was August 31st and we are happy to report an increase in EBIDAT of 62%. During one of the most difficult times for discretionary retail in the US we have now posted two years of in a row of profitability. The expectations this year is to increase another $200,000 and begin to drive towards our goal of a million in EBIDAT. Gross Same Store Sales revenue increased over 20% in 2011 which is in addition to 27% increase posted in 2010. These numbers don’t include the successful launch of Fairway Vacations and the continuation of the growth of our golf social network MyGolfPeople.com.
By Forrest Blake
Forrest Blake Wow what a day at Valencia Country Club last Friday. The front 9 I was working on my take away and couldn’t make solid contact with the ball. What I realized is that trying to get the club outside caused me to push my hands out and effect the top of my swing. So, on 12 I gave up and made sure my right arm was tight to my body, which gave me a solid shoulder turn and my game came back. I need to hold firm with my theory that the place to practice the golf swing is at GolfTEC and once you are on the course the only thing you focus on is the target. I learned this from Dr. Joseph Parent the author of Zen Golf in several personal playing lessons.
The only way to play decent golf is to become a veracious student of the game. In order to improve, every time you play a round there needs to be some soul searching. If you are thick headed, gruff, or find your aggravation level peaks if you cannot master things quickly, there may be a better use of your time than chasing a little white ball around a golf course. Golf tests your body, mind and character. This is why so many people love this game.
It‘s so hard!
Part of the reason is all the exactness of variables needed to play average golf. Great golf is a whole different discussion. There is less of a margin of error than in most other sports. Think about the physics of golf. We are attempting to deliver a strike at over one hundred miles per hour at the center of the clubface, which is at the end of a forty-five inch shaft into the back of a ball. And we need to do it within one or two degrees of square to hit it into the fairway. When you play St. Andrews in Scotland, you need to factor in the thirty-five mile per hour wind, as well as the rain and the cool temperatures.
To find out more about playing Great Golf go to GolfTEC. To book golf travel to Scotland go to Fairway Vacations. To join “Golf’s Social Network” go to MyGolfPeople.
Anyone who had faced impossible odds and grinded through the pain to become a success will appreciate this video.
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Great day of golf at Valencia Country Club. I shot 75 with another ball in the water on hole 15. I guess I will have to go back to GolfTEC for some more lessons. Need that swing to hold up under pressure.
Forrest Blake at Valencia Country Club
The first day of the week creates fear just like in golf. Fear is a major component in every shot for every golfer, from the experienced to the beginner. Many of us develop more intense fear as the game becomes more difficult and our desire to win escalates.
I asked myself what would happen if I settled into a shot, then looked up and imagined a different hole, ignoring the voluminous water that was ready to swallow up my ball. The idea of being able to handle my fear by a simple switch in perceptive was fascinating.
It is Monday and there are so many things to do on the task list as a CEO of three companies GolfTEC SoCal, Fairway Vacations and MyGolfPeople. This brings up apprehension and fear of failure. Can I get this done? What happens if I don’t get back to that person? Am I going to hit that constantly moving budget? How am I going to make my house payment?
Take a deep breath and change your mindset from fear to accomplishment. The only way to do this is to look at each item as stand-alone tasks. Just like in golf. If you focus on one shot at a time, the overall pressure disappears. It is only when you fret about being on the 6th hole with 12 more to go that we feel the fear of performance.
This change in perspective will not happen overnight. When we experience fear, this can be a great place to learn unique ways to overcome it. One shot at a time.
These are some of the pictures from our Fairway Vacations trip to Scotland with GolfTEC.
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