About nine years ago, I decided we needed some cold weather sleeping bags, having recently moved to a place that's quite cold in the winter time. So I did some research and I figured out how cold it gets on average in the winter. And, um, thought about what I wanted to use the bags for which would include
hiking into places, not just driving into places or doing backyard camping. And so from that, I derived a set of criteria. It had to support temperatures at least down to minus 20 it had to be compressible so that it could fit into a backpack. It couldn't be too, too heavy because, uh, I have Children
and they can't carry too much weight, but volume wise, they would have to carry their own bags. So that gave me a minimum set of criteria. And I went to Cabela's and I looked through all their sleeping bags and probably, I don't know, maybe there were 10% that met that set of criteria. So I didn't know
which one of those would be the best. Uh I could see differences in price, but you can't really assess differences of quality without using them. So I bought one of every single one that fit those criteria and I brought them home and I slept in each of them for one night. That's not true. I waited for
a really cold day and then I bought all of them and then I just went outside and got into them in the really cold weather. And so this wasn't a long term commitment of a whole night. You don't need a whole night to assess how warm these things are. So, uh with that, I found a drastic difference in value
across that set of sleeping bags. There was one that was absolutely better than all the others. The others weren't even close. And then the next runner up was also vastly superior to all the ones left. So then I, I mixed in the, the uh attribute of price and it turns out the one that was the best was
actually the most affordable, which was shocking. It happened to be made by Cabelas. And so I decided that's the one I wanted. And um with the number of kids I have and then accounting for potential guests, I came up with some ridiculous number of sleeping bags that I wanted. I think it was 10. I don't
remember. And um then I, because I knew that at the time, Cabelas would send me coupons for $20 off a purchase of $100 or more or something like that. I went in and I bought them one at a time over months. So as soon as I got a coupon, I went in and I bought a sleeping bag until I reached the number
of bags that I was getting interestingly throughout all this, um this store was fairly new at the time in my location. And I got to know one of the managers quite well because I was using my military discount every time I bought one and they needed approval, the register person usually didn't have authority
for that. And so for whatever reason, um, so I got to know this manager on a first name basis and I would even just ask for her as soon as I went in. Um, and it's interesting that, that, you know, she would say hi to me by name every time I came in the store and also bought tons of other things at the
time. So anything I needed she was there to, to hook me up because she knew that I was basically supporting the store at this time. Ok. So what's the application of all of this? Oh, there's another point which is very important. Not too long after I did this, they stopped selling that sleeping bag. So
you can't get it anymore and getting anything close to it instead of coming out to just under 100 bucks, it's a few $100. It, and it's not, um, it's not as nice for various reasons you, you literally just can't buy a sleeping bag like that anymore. Ok. So what are the applications of this? You can probably
figure it out for yourself, but you can overlay almost any situation in life to this. Some of the lessons of this allegory are one, figure out what you want, two think about and figure out the way to get it. Three realize the limitations of your resources as you're evaluating possible things that fit
your criteria, do not waste any resources on what you know, upfront cannot possibly meet your criteria when you get to the point where you can no longer just use rational um logic to um and research. So basically anything but experience in your limited resources when you get to the point where you have
to invest resources to investigate further, figure out the minimal commitment you can make to do that effectively. So I just put these, I got in the sleeping bags when it was really cold outside. I didn't sleep in them overnight. And I, I made sure there was a return policy. I didn't commit myself to
buying 10 sleeping bags or however many. It was uh it was a lot. I bought all these sleeping bags knowing I was gonna return all of them. But one, I didn't keep any of them longer than the return policy allowed. So once I found what I knew fit, fit my criteria, I went all in things of high quality, high
value. I should say things of high value almost always require a complete commitment. There's no do overs, there's no half in this half in that it's everything. So, uh those are things to think about. And then finally, there was a window of opportunity and it closed when I did this, there were people
including my wife, bless her heart. She's very patient with me. Um I've been vindicated enough times that this is easier now after years of marriage. But um you know, the the most recent thing was chickens. That seemed like a crazy idea. I mean, we spent a lot of time and money setting up a system for
that here and uh with the egg prices exploding, that turned out to be a good idea. Uh Wisdom is known of her Children is what Jesus said or another way of putting it is you find out the value of things through time and experience. Um good decisions are vindicated over time. Their, their value becomes
increasingly apparent over time anyway. Um the window closed and now you cannot get the sleeping bags. And so again, it was one of these, hey, guess what, you know all the sleeping bags I got. Yeah, you can't buy them anymore. Oh, and there was another sleeping bag uh escapade. Yeah, it's I call this
an allegory but it's a true story. This really happened. Um And there was another sleeping bag story because I noticed I just so happened to look at the Cabela circulars every time they come knowing that there's things that I need. Uh, and I have a list of that in my head and I check what the prices
are and I kind of know what the going rate is for certain things. Um And uh this is a good, good place. At least one person who watches these videos has seen Joe Dirt and uh this is a good Joe Dirt reference when he's looking at the auto trader and he knows what the going rate for floor mats on a hemy
are or whatever. Um But uh you know, going through the cella circular and you know what the value of certain things is. Uh I saw that they had these not packable heavyweight cotton, you know, the boxy sleeping bags, not mummy bags with canvas exterior and they were comfort rated, I think to minus 30
. And I was like, well that looks good. Um It, it was insanely cheap. They were like $35 or something and it was a new company that had just come out and obviously they were trying to penetrate the market and I had coupons, military discount, whatever. I'd end up buying like 10 of these sleeping bags
as well. So we have a stockpile of sleeping bags at my house. Um Anyway, uh these things again, I bought one just to try it out. Did the outside test. It was insanely comfortable. I hate mummy bags. You know. So if I had the option going camping, I'll take one of these. But then they're also really nice
. If you just end up with surprise guests or something, you have a way to keep them warm and, um, these particular ones, you can double up if you have two people. Um, you know, a couple then that works really well. So, whatever the point is that I bought a massive amount of these sleeping bags as well
, and this also extended my reputation in the store. That's another point of this allegory, which is actually a pair of true stories is that um, you create relationships with people who dwell in higher spheres of value. That's the best way I can put it. So I had, uh, I had shared rela uh I had a shared
perspective. I had shared perspectives with this, this lady, her name is Carrie. Um I don't think she works there anymore and I, I don't really go to get these things anymore because I don't need them anymore. But um, the, we were able to communicate things and she understood where I was coming from
on certain things. And we had this Venn diagram overlap of perspective on things. And I tell her she's like, why do you like the sleeping bags so much? I said, well, let me tell you, I'm glad you asked. Uh And she's like, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And meanwhile a lot of other customers would come
and go and they just, they're just kind of mindlessly doing their thing. They don't care. Um, and she would actually point me to things that she thought I would be interested in. Very kind lady. Um, but, uh, we joke about, she's like you always have a job here if you want one. but, uh, because I, I had
tested basically everything in the store. So, um, value is out there to get, but it's not gonna come for you. And usually if you wait until life puts it in your face, it's too late to get what you could have gotten out of it. So, um, this is a story that like a parable, it would be very difficult to
fully unfold everything in it, but it's a convenient way to push a whole lot of stuff right in front of you and you can parse it out as far as you'd like. Uh, and are able to. So the phrase I've seen in a book before was something like make many small bets and double down on what works. And it's one
of many lessons that I have figured out without anyone telling me, but I wish someone would have told me much earlier in life. So now, you know, and knowing is half the battle.