- The Margin Memo
- Posts
- TMM #008: 100 Coins
Read Time: 4 min
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Good morning, men.
Let’s play pretend for a second…
Let’s pretend that you wake up in the morning and have a pile of coins laying on your bedside table with a note.
The note reads:
Good morning.
As you will see on this table, you have 100 coins.
There are 3 written rules to this game:
1. You must spend them down to zero by the end of today
2. Everyone else has 100 coins as well
3. All coins will be replenished in the morning
Best of luck.
Ok?
Seems like an odd game.
I’ve got coins, have to spend them, so does everyone else, and I get them again tomorrow.
Ok but…
How do I win?
What do I win if I do win?
What can I spend them on?
When does this game end?
Feels like some context is missing.
And maybe it is… or maybe it isn’t and that’s intentional.
But there is definitely a game at hand and there is definitely some sort of currency involved in the game.
It isn’t monetary because it replenishes every single morning for every single person.
So what is it?
And how am I going to spend these coins?
…
Men, pretend is over…
The coins are your time.
Every man has it, every man must spend it, and every man will wake up the next morning with more of it.
Most men will spend some of their coins sleeping in.
Most men will spend some of their coins scrolling their phone.
Most men will spend some of their coins “shooting the shit” with their old loser friends that are going nowhere.
Most men will spend some of their coins stuffing their face.
Most men will spend MOST of their coins on work that they hate, with people that they dislike, forcing their wife to spend her coins on work she hates, with people she dislikes… all so you can scrape by and pay the bills.
Most men spend their kid’s coins for them as well… unfortunately, because of how they have spent their coins in their life they have no choice but to send their kids to a school that forces them to spend their innocent coins on a useless education and more coins on being indoctrinated by a woke ideology that teaches kids that victimhood is cool and that being confused is a part of the journey.
And when the kids get home? Everyone is exhausted so they allow them to spend their coins on screen time.
Amazing use of coins…
Now… there are other men as well.
Other men will spend their coins in the gym.
Other men will spend their coins investing in their marriages.
Other men will spend their coins honing their craft and taking calculated risk.
Other men will spend their coins learning how to leverage other people’s coins to get more done.
Other men will spend their coins investing in their kid’s education, interests, and development… They’ll spend their coins teaching their kids how to spend their coins.
Other men will spend their coins ensuring that their wife doesn’t HAVE to spend her coins on providing for the family and instead on shepherding their kids.
Other men will spend their coins on building a brotherhood, educating themselves, building wealth, and the list goes on…
You guys get the picture?
Your time is precious.
The rules of the game don’t tell you how to spend that time… hey just state that you must spend your time.
And because you will get more of it tomorrow, most men will look at their time and other people’s time around them as a cheap commodity and they will spend it accordingly.
And they wonder why they’re broke, unhappy, have kids that are off the rails, a shaky marriage, loser friendships, aimless pursuits, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness.
Other men will value these coins and spend them wisely.
They will be wealthy, they will have freedom, they will have rock solid marriages and kids that love them, they will have community, ambition, joy, and contentment.
Be the “other” men.
If you’re one of the men on this list, you must be the “other” men.
Every minute matters and every minute should be spent intentionally.
I will teach you.
Next week I have a very practical exercise I call the O.D.D. Method that I’m going to share with you all on how to spend these “coins” on the highest value, most efficient things in your life.
That said, I will leave you with one question.
“What are you investing your coins into currently?”
Take stock. You’ll need that list next week.
Oh…
One more thing….
I forgot to mention the 1 unwritten rule:
Those coins that replenish every morning… they are pulling from a storehouse that will run out one day. You just don’t know which day that will be. At that point, the game is over. Your investments have been made.
I’m grateful you’re here.
To your pursuit of Margin,
Joey Gilkey