Optionality Always Wins

Starting to feel like Uncle Rico here, this is three high school sports articles in like a week. Not sure why I'm feeling nostalgic here.

Regardless, my high school basketball coach was a dick. I've documented that before.

So, in my sophomore year, I was asked to split time between JV and Varsity for a few games, which meant I would play the first half of a JV game and then have two quarters available to play for the Varsity game later that night. We were in Prosser, Washington, which was about a thirty-minute bus ride from our home turf, playing the Prosser Mustangs.

That night during the JV game, I had something like ten points and a few rebounds. Nothing special in half of a game, but I remember thinking I was playing well and felt good about the game I played.

I didn't think anything of it, the game ended and I went back into the locker room to get ready for the Varsity game with Coach P. Now, mind you, Coach P had plenty of time to chat with me, to pull me aside and tell me I didn't play well, or that I wasn't working hard, or that I could have rebounded better, etc. He didn't use any of that time to have such a conversation.

The Varsity game started, and I had two quarters of eligibility to go.

Then, with about two minutes into the second quarter of the Varsity game, Coach P yelled down the bench, "BOND!" I stood up and ripped away my shooting pants, and before I could get my shooting jersey off, a five-foot-nothing man with white hair got in my face.

"Are you going to play harder in this game than you played in the JV game, Bond?!"

I was completely caught off guard, just seconds away from going to check into the game. The wind was completely out of my sails, I was confused, I was frustrated, and I was completely irritated that he would choose this moment to say something to me when he had plenty of time to confront me if he thought I mailed in the first game. It was especially defeating because in my mind, I had played well. I thought I did a good job and was proud of how I played.

Apparently not.

Regardless, Coach P sucked.

At the moment, I did what any high school kid would do. I replied something like, "yeah, or yes I will," and then checked into the game.

But as the years have gone on, I've replayed that moment a few too many times.

I've thought about all the things I would have liked to have said in that exact moment, standing in front of the scorers' table, staring down at this tiny narcissist, while I prepared to go into the game.

The list includes, but is certainly not limited to:

• "Sure, coach, and why don't you go fuck yourself?"
• "Why are you the way you are?"
• "Nope. I quit"
• "Shove it up your ass, and I quit."
• "What are you talking about? I quit. Go fuck yourself."

The options are endless and frankly interchangeable if you want to have some fun with the wording.

As a high school kid at the time, I didn't feel like I had many options. My option was to comply, say yes coach, can I have another, and go in the game and then later dream about all the things I wish would have happened. Back then, the optionality wasn't there.

As my career has progressed, there is one word that keeps coming to mind for me, and it's optionality. When I talk to people about optionality, it's sort of a foreign concept to most.

What I mean when I talk to people about optionality is simple. Set yourself up with enough options that you can make the decisions you want to make.

Let's use the Coach P example in the workplace. Your toxic manager frustrates you for the third time this month after also not giving you a pay raise, and or a terrible performance rating. You've been thinking about leaving for a new gig, and instead, you continue to deal with Chad. Eventually, you get frustrated enough, what do you do? Well, most people just continue to take it because they don't have an option. They have to deal with the ramifications of it all because they have a mortgage, a car payment, and a family to feed. Their only source of income is tied to a job they hate, a company they don't feel an affinity for, and a product or service they're not interested in working with.

Optionality gives you the choice to stand up for yourself, to make decisions that prioritize you, and to do the things you love.

So, how do you find optionality? You invest in the things that give you the opportunity one day.

You put enough money away to walk away when you want.

You start consulting on the side.

You start a side hustle.

You have a business plan ready with a friend.

The list goes on.

Optionality allows you to make decisions that you love, not decisions that Chad the micro-manager forces you to make.

I think back on that high school basketball game often. I know I would have paid a price for telling Coach P to shove it up his ass, but it would have been so worth it.

Optionality for the win.

Take, for instance, you get laid off like the hundreds of thousands of tech workers this past year. If you only have one source of income, you instantly find yourself in a difficult position. If you have previously built optionality, then you're in a different headspace.

Optionality for the win.