How a Ten Year Old Girl Beat Me at Monopoly
Friday, September 26, 2008 14:20You might have read in a previous newsletter about my visit to Longleat manor over the last Bank Holiday weekend in august here in the UK. I had planned to return home the day after the weekend was over, but the girls asked me to stay another day and play Monopoly with me. They are lovely children, so I agreed to stay until mid-afternoon. This should easily give us enough time for them to have a girly lay-in, and we’d all play a relaxed game of Monopoly in the late morning.
Jade brought her Monopoly set out. This was interesting. I was expecting a traditional Monopoly set, but Jade had ‘the Simpson’s version. The same basic concept, but twisted into a new niche. That got me thinking, and after a little research when I got home, I discovered that there were all sorts of versions, several UK cities, and several other countries had their own city versions too. Star wars, stock exchange, football (soccer) clubs, like Manchester united. The list goes on. It’s easy to see how you can use the same product, give it a new spin, for a whole new market. If I sold cookery ebooks, I could have several versions of the same basic product.
100 Tips For Quick And Easy Recipes For The Busy Housewife
100 Tips For Quick And Easy Recipes For The Busy Business Woman
100 Tips For Quick And Easy Recipes For The Busy Househusband
100 Tips For Quick And Easy Recipes For The Busy Business Man
100 Tips For Quick And Easy Recipes For The Busy New Wife …
Experts suggest that you could find 52 new markets or profit streams for an ebook…I’m not sure you’d find 52 for some niches, but if you had a brainstorm session once a week for a new market for your product, and you twisted your product, you’d pretty soon have a huge potential market for very little extra work. Certainly better than having to come up with new ideas all the time.
Anyway, I shot off at a tangent there… Back to the game of Monopoly. I was playing against Jade (14), and Jenga (10). Jenga was a nickname Jades’ cousin was trying out for the weekend. Now, I’ve played Monopoly for most of my life, and I’m pretty good at it. I’ve not lost since the ’80s. I adopt a certain but flexible strategy where I get some prime real estate, and prevent others from doing the same. In fact, I can sometimes get some of the other players to give me some of their cards. Even though I was playing a game I knew I’d win, I did allow the girls to bend the rules a little to give them an advantage. My normal plan was working, and my opponents had no plan. Their portfolios could never be complete because of the way they were playing.
But then after lunch something strange happened. The girls realised that I was certain to win. They teamed up with each other, pooling their resources. Now they had some complete sets, and more money. They owned more than two thirds of the board. Within ten turns my fortunes had changed. A few hundred dollars here, few more there, and landing one of their big money properties had now virtually cleaned me out. They had JVed with each other, and were earning small amounts out of lots of ‘little oil wells’. They certainly taught me an interesting business lesson.
My latest project, Autoblog Content Factory will soon go live. This system will post unique articles to your WordPress blogs organically. I will be publishing on a range of profitable niches, from health to business to hobbies and interests. I require a small number of testers to make sure my servers can take the load without causing problems. After the test period is over, I’ll give you a free months membership by way of thank you. Contact me via my normal email address with the phrase ‘autoblog tester’ in the subject line. The spots are limited, and I’m looking for testers who actively take part in testing rather than passively sit back. Only active testers will get the reward of a months free membership.










Buddy Shearer says:
October 8th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I would love to be one of the testers!
Buddy
John Taylor says:
October 8th, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Great post Glenn, I learn a lot from my granddaughter.. she asks tough questions! LOL
Glenn Leader says:
October 8th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Thanks John, I’m glad you like my post
Children ask the best questions don’t they?
Glenn Leader says:
October 8th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi Buddy
Can you send your request via email please? It’ll make it easier for me to manage the testing
glenn at cloudzero dot co dot uk
Russell says:
October 8th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
A suggestion Glenn… the light coloured text on this blog is not the easeist to read. For instance the “comments” are darker, and MUCH easier to read.
Black text on a white background is best.
Luke says:
October 9th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Hmm, interesting lesson on the power of combining with others in business. In fact that’s a huge lesson.
Luke
Glenn Leader says:
October 9th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Hi Russell,
Thank you for your comments about the usability of my blog. When I make my next edits to the system, I’ll look into the text colours to see if I can make things a bit easier on the eyes B)
Glenn Leader says:
October 9th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Hi Luke,
Yes indeed, a huge lesson can be learned from all sorts of everyday activities. I had to leave lots of lessons I learned from my trip to Longleat Safari Park and House, simply because I didn’t want my post to go on for too long.
Alex Rich says:
October 11th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Very good lessons from your observation of the little ones. Business savvy and experience can be outplayed by less savvy joint venturers with a focus on winning.
Definitely interesting mind-fodder for changing my strategy.
Thanks a million for sharing.
Rich J says:
October 12th, 2008 at 10:09 am
Art Linkletter said it a long time ago, “Kids Say the Darndest Things!” We can all learn…also, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
Glenn Leader says:
October 16th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
@Alex: I’m glad the girls helped you with your strategy
They’ve sure helped mine, and sometimes read this blog.
@Rich: Art Linkletter sounds like a clued up guy. I suppose his internet name should be Art HyperLinkletter
Jim Furr says:
November 6th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Hi Glenn,
Great post!
Excellent observations and a great
application to life/business skills.
Jim >
Tomw says:
November 18th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Great Post, Glenn. I clicked your sig link from the Warrior Forum because of the intriguing title and was delighted I did.
Thomas
Glenn Leader says:
November 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Hi Tom, thanks for visiting and commenting my blog.
It’s always interesting how young children try new things without wondering if they’ll work. It’s only as adults we consider things before diving in, and as a result, we seriously limit what we can achieve.