Playing Moneyball to Win at Life
“Moneyball” by Michael Lewis can be applied to own own lives. Society defines what success looks like. Most people chase that. But by defining what winning looks like to us, we can combine unique data and our skills to win big.
By now, many people have heard of this influential book. It even became a movie with Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. Moneyball is the story of Oakland A’s General Manager, Billy Beane, committing to a whole different approach to assembling talent for a baseball club. The A’s, notorious for being cheap, couldn’t use the same strategy as the New York Yankees or other big markets who had the ability to buy the best talent. They wouldn’t win. Instead of doing the same thing that baseball teams had done for over 100 years, he challenged it. His philosophy was unconventional but now it’s a huge component of nearly every American sports front offices.
Billy Beane infused knowledge from this underground baseball community – of really nerds – who thought about baseball differently. Instead of the eye test and valuing home runs, batting average, RBI’s, and stolen bases, they valued a different set of data: getting on base. In the late ‘90s computers were becoming a more integral part of companies and organizations and people’s lives. It became easier to assemble and view stats. But sports is about athleticism – about what’s on the field. By valuing something different and specific, like on base percentage and walks, math nerds could find who actually were the better players based on statistics. Then try to get as many of those players as possible within their budget. The Oakland A’s have been one of the most competitive teams in the last twenty years.
What excites me most about this book is how easily my mind can apply it to life. If life is a game, we’re all trying to win at it. But it’s unfair and always will be. Each one of us is different and have unique circumstances around our lives. What’s shocking – or rather not – is that most people let society define what winning looks like. So then people aspire or value what is perceived as winning. Americans chase after fame, big houses, trendy clothing, fancy vacations, new cars and trucks, the latest technology devices, or fancy titles. All of these indicate status. This is what success looks like. Imagine living your life only to impress people. Most people think the same because it’s risky to think different. Almost everyone in baseball thought Billy Beane was crazy. Until it worked.
If society values these particular things, like big ticket baseball players, everyone is going to try to get it. The cost is high. If you don’t already have the huge resources as others, you’re going to be at a disadvantage. Don’t do the same things as everyone else. You need to play your own game of Moneyball.
You first have to identify what winning is to you. Moneyball is about defining, understanding, and using particular data to your advantage. Data, what I’ve discovered, can be anything. It’s information. In baseball it was statistics. So what set of data are you going to prioritize? The world gives us information all the time. Make a connection between this data and your skills. Don’t play their game. Play your game.