Playing Your Cards Right

Welcome to another episode of halftime Talks. My name is Rahim, Rasul and you’re listening to the podcast, where we recognize it in the middle of your game of life, whether you’re up by 10 or down by 20. Each of us you and I, we both need halftime talks, to uplift us, inspire us and challenge us to bring that level of performance. It’s gonna take so when the game in [He quotes the opening of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme.] Welcome back to another episode of halftime Talks. My name is Rahim, Rasul. And this week we have a really cool episode. But hey, you know me, you know how we start, we start with a little bit of appreciation before we get into all the flare dramatics of an episode.

And in this week’s episode, I want to talk about having that one person or multiple people in your life that act as a beacon, not only of hope, but direction that make you believe a little bit more than yourself, the competition and may not always be implied, but it’s there. And it challenges you to bring out the upper limits of your own capacity. So when you see them operate, it’s effortless. Be it the way that they resonate with loving the world, or the way that they display their God given talent, it challenges you and even asked you to be a little bit more with your own gifts. And that is my appreciation. I like that. So to get into today’s episode, if you’ve looked at the title, what we’re going to be talking about is playing your cards right, understanding the hand that you’ve been dealt.

This is an episode that when the idea of wanting to make this a halftime talks episode came in, it was fully formed. Obviously, I had to flesh it out a bit. But ultimately, I want to give you this raw episode, this raw episode that it will preferably allow you to navigate the hand you’ve been given and capitalize on the strengths that is within it. And ultimately dispel any illusion that that the House has the advantage. Without belaboring the intro any longer. Let’s get into the episode. So sit back, relax, strap in your seatbelt, open your mind and prepare to be receptive for that one idea that has the power to transform everything that can completely shift the temperature of your water. Okay, let’s go. I want you to look back at your life.

And remember a lot of the car games that you have played even dominoes that require a dealer to distribute randomly. Obviously, we want him to be playing fair. So distributed randomly, a set of cards to you. If it’s Texas Hold’em, you’re gonna get five cards. If it’s spades, and you’re playing with partners of four groups of four, you’re probably getting 13 cards. And this is selected at random. And ultimately, you know, when you’re sitting down, some people may have the chip lead, and some people are just more talented. There’s a reason why, in the poker community Phil Ivey is at the final table more than not, it’s skill, it’s talent, and nothing has changed, the dealer is still dealing out a set of random cards even to him.

He is not he is not subject to getting better cards just because he’s a better player. He’s not subject to getting everything in his favor because he has a beginning, Shipley. And as I began to explore this idea of understanding how to play your hand, I began to draw the parallels with our own lives. Some of us are born with, you know, the silver spoon and a mouse. Others may be born at a quote, unquote, competitive disadvantage. But if you look at these, these games of chance See these poker tournaments, when that big whale of a fish sits down at the table with a huge deck, the other players are like, this is where I’m gonna win. And so no matter what hand you’ve been dealt, how do we win the game of spades, we have to play one hand at a time, every hand isn’t going to be the home run, every hand isn’t going to win a tournament.

It is that disciplined approach to knowing when to strike that distinguishes one hand from another from a winning pot to a, a bankrupt hand. And so if we’re expecting every time that we sit at the table to win to clear out all the other people’s covers, then I think we have a misplaced assumption of what’s possible, or, more aptly put what is probable. And so if you’ve watched any tournament, or if you’ve played a game of spades, you have to make the best with what you have, you are given an opportunity, but it takes the skill and a talent to understand the opportunities with it. To understand the advantage you have when you do have a short stack to understand the advantages you have when other people are looking at you under estimating everything that you’ve contributed to the game.

And what you can still do when you have less resources, you can be more agile, you can be more disruptive. You can bluff. What is the word fake it till you make it but I also caution it because if you fake it too long, you’re a fake and a fraud. But understanding that people will read your tails, people will read what you’re giving off. But over time, you have one hand after another and you play your position, you incrementally increase your chip count, so that you have the ability to recognize a good hand, from a poor hand. You recognize the ability, when to go all in when to bet everything, not necessarily from a perspective of chance. Because what these games a chance, what the ultimate player is capable of doing is taking chance out of it, negating the house advantage, knowing the probabilities or the possibilities and the odds of specific hands.

So you’re not playing from a gut perspective, but from a very mindful and intuitive perspective. How was your life any different for the individuals growing up in abject poverty lower middle class middle class that don’t have the financial resources, what we can begin to do is shift the way that we play the game because the people with the advantage can lose it quickly. If you acquire the correct set of skills, if you know how to play the hands if you’re not risk averse, if you’re not scared of losing it all because you’ve seen the highs and you’ve seen the lows, tis the game. Tis the game be a poker spades, you can’t control how the cards fall. But one thing you can do is control how you plan.

So if you get a to win a seven, you can fold, you could throw it into the muck. But you have to continue to play at the board long enough to when you get that great hand. Ah, like I said, you may not hit the Grand Slam with it. But you can build your chip stack. And once you continue to build that chip stack because you know the difference between the risk and reward of a situation you put yourself in a position to leave those humble beginnings to leave beyond the situation you’ve come from. And now you can aspire towards that new plateau. I know in poker it’s it’s those highest stacks of high society, in the movie Rounders getting that $10,000 or for any level in spades, you want to understand how to use these cars that you have been given, like the cars that you have been given the talents, the resources, the people, the network, the people willing to help you and assist you the things that the social organizations that are in your community that can benefit you that you can use them right now, to gain a strategic advantage.

You have to understand which opportunities to invest in and which opportunities you should pass saw, because it becomes risky when you think everything has the capacity to be that Grand Slam, the disciplined approach of understanding the cars that are coming your way, will allow you to truly maximize and harness these opportunities as they come in your life. I know I use the example of poker, I know I’ve used the example of spades or even dominance, it’s not a hand you’re given. It’s understanding how to play it, and even how to how to minimize the loss on a bad hand and maximize your fortune. On a good hand. This is a loose analogy. This is a cool story. This is a way to begin to look at your life.

Because so many times we forget, we forget exactly what our life has uniquely positioned us to benefit from, be it the resilience be it not having a version of risks, seeing the highs and the lows, so you’re a little bit more bold. The decisions you have to make from a lack of resources and and now you’re more resourceful. You can think outside of the box, you can see situations for what they provide, hey, we all can get fat from an abundance of resources. But can we still think lien can we still know and recognize the resources that are being dealt out into our hands? And so ultimately, we benefit from both worlds. And I think we’re all in a position right now. Listening. Hey, if you can listen to the podcast, you are in a position to take advantage of some amazing resources.

Hey, this is Rahim. Rasul this has been another episode of halftime talks. Thank you guys for listening. Make sure you go to iTunes or even Google to listen and subscribe. Rate and leave us a review. I’d really appreciate that. Really don’t ask for much. Make sure you also go share with a friend because the more who know the more we grow. Until next time, I’m Rahim. Rasul This is Park. Let me start over. I’m Rahim. Rasul This is halftime talks pace.