Chap 10: Just This Once (Kailing and Winnie) by Elizabeth Tang

A Life of Integrity

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Marginal Analysis - Good theory to apply?

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The Trap of Marginal Thinking

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Causes bias to personal and company decisions: the analysis leverages resources that have brought success in the past rather than guiding them to create capabilities needed for the future.

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Continuing down the path of marginal thinking... and insisting on profiting off their existing business model.

Blockbuster's Marginal Thinking

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Even when they noticed that Netflix had begun to earn significant profits, they continued to make marginal thinking decisions.
Blockbuster's management compared profit margins
- Netflix (36%) vs Blockbuster (~60%)

Case Study: Blockbuster v Netflix

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So, use full thinking!

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Failure is often at the end of a path of marginal thinking, so we often end up paying for the full cost of our decisions, not the marginal costs, whether we like it or not.

How the theory has benefited me - a personal story

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What I'd like to change in my life so that it is a life I hope to live

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Explore: different courses in school, different career routes
Stop being weighed down by whether a singular route can take me further
Shift my question to: "Is this what makes my career exciting for me?" without being held back my marginal benefits of remaining on the same track

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How does marginal thinking apply to us?

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:40:20 UTC

How this business concept applies to our everyday lives:

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:41:58 UTC

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:43:47 UTC

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:46:05 UTC

What would you do?

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:47:37 UTC

Skip church just this once and play in the championship
Go to church

The lesson: Holding to your principles 100% of the time

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:50:54 UTC

The author missed the basketball game, but did not regret it
He stayed firm and true to what he believed in by going to church
Chose not to skip it 'just this once' -- because he knew that it would not actually happen just once

Reflections: Kai Ling

kailing9287 — 2024-10-22 23:57:06 UTC

What I learnt

kailing9287 — 2024-10-23 00:12:01 UTC

Practise what you believe in all the time, without making exceptions. The risk of making exceptions is that it never happens just one time.
Making exceptions easily becomes a habit, and habits are hard to break.

kailing9287 — 2024-10-23 00:20:37 UTC

Reflections: Winnie

kailing9287 — 2024-10-23 00:21:52 UTC

Nobody sets out with the intention to mess up

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Why still, do big role models end up in jail? Why do we still make the wrong ethical decisions?

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How to Stay Out of Jail

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(Trust me, it can happen to the most ordinary of us)

Small daily decisions that seem to have no impact

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Instead, use FULL thinking!

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Look beyond small, immediate gains or losses
Ask: "What is the full price of this decision down the road? What will this choice mean for me, my career, my relationships, and my integrity in the long term?"

Blockbuster: Movie rental giant

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Over 9000 stores worldwide

Netflix with a disruptive business model: Subscription system

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Blockbuster ended up paying the full price with its entire business.

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My dream: to expand my family business of a nail salon

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Growing up and making important decisions...

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1 rule: Will this help me advance my dream for expanding the family business?

Kept pursuing all things business - CCAs, Education, Projects

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Just last year, for the first time in my life, I realised...

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I could have a future that does not involve my family business at all.

I might be made for something else?

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Marginal thinking constricted me.

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I had other interests and passions, but marginal thinking kept me constricted to what I had already invested in.

Continue the family business v Start a new career

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This chapter has prompted me to think:

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What if, when I choose to stick to the original plan, I bear the full cost of an unfulfilling career?

A lifetime doing what I thought I was meant to do, without ever exploring other possibilities of what I could be.

This theory helped me see that I was only considering the next small step, not the full cost of staying on this path.

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Applications to my own life

kailing9287 — 2024-10-23 03:24:12 UTC

I want to become an economist in the future -> I want to get better at economics -> showing up to class and staying disciplined in learning
Should I skip tutorial, just this once?

Never do it 'just this once'.

kailing9287 — 2024-10-23 03:38:05 UTC

Sources

kailing9287 — 2024-10-23 04:22:18 UTC