When You Shoot With Your Lunch Money..........

Years ago, I liked to shoot pool and spent a fair amount of time hanging out with a friend who showed me the finer points of the game. We had a good time and just played for fun, but every once in a while, some guy would come over to our table and ask if we wanted to shoot for money. Usually we turned down all those offers.

My friend had a saying "When you start to shoot with your lunch money, the pockets start to move."

There were other nights when I would be out with other people and would shoot for beers or money. Sometimes after a few beers, I could not sink even easy shots, but at other times, I could make every shot on the table even though I was hammered. Does beer help improve aim and follow through in shooting pool? Mostly not, although it depends on how much you care.

One night I went out drinking with some of my buddies and we ended up in a bar somewhere. We were shooting for fun. Then this good looking woman comes over to me and asks if I would like to shoot for a friendly wager, like $5. I won the game. The word "set up" didn't register with me because she was wearing this low cut top with lots of cleavage. As she pays me, she says, "My friend would like to play you next."

So this guy comes up to the table with his own cue, and he wants to up the bet to $20but won't go more than $10, and as soon as we lag for the break, I notice my friends betting on the other guy. The picture suddenly came into focus.

She was smiling. And I smiled. Somebody else would be a sucker for the big bet. The pockets were not moving. He was just a better shot. So I left the table and had another beer.

Lots of new business "opportunities" look like that little pool game. They want to sucker you into doubling down, doubling down, and you never have a chance. Being able to recognize the difference between real opportunities and fake opportunities gives you the big clue as to when to leave the table.

And now that we are all looking at new and different opportunities, it pays to tell the difference.