How Opportunity Costs Shape Your Life

► Life Lessons

How To Achieve Big Goals

Before you run and hide under the covers like the cats of a former boyfriend, take a deep breath and tell yourself, “I can do this.” This advice applies to whatever BHAG (big, hairy audacious goal) you face. #Truth.

One thing I’m positive about:
If you remain one of the two lumps under the quilt like my boyfriend’s cats, you won’t accomplish anything! This applies to cleaning the bathroom or building a new business as well as everything in between.

► History Lessons

Notre Dame Reopens

This past week curated a strange mix of news in real-time, no social media scrolling required. I’m just focusing on two of them.

After a catastrophic fire burned and ruined much of Notre Dame de Paris except the amazing stained-glass rose window, it reopened after five years of rebuilding.

Notre Dame de Paris has a special place in my heart. When I was a student at university, I spent a year studying in Paris. My French language class met three days a week diagonally across from the cathedral.

In those days, Place de Notre Dame was less crowded so I regularly visited the church to sit on the hard seats staring at the Rose window. On warm sunny days, my roommate and I climb the hundreds of irregular stone steps to sunbathe between the gargoyle-festooned towers.

In terms of Gothic cathedral building, five years seems very short. Importantly, it shows how people can accomplish amazing things if they are motivated to work together towards a common goal.

Echeyde showed the rebuilt cathedral on X. Over the years that I’ve visited Notre Dame, I never saw the floors look so clean. (Maybe they clean NYC apartments? My husband would love to have a French maid. #JustAsking.)

Actionable Life Tip

• Laser focus to accomplish important activities. With a plan and a team it is achievable. Take the first step and get help from others. As the fire burned, people around the world bemoaned the loss of the church believing it would take over a lifetime to recreate.

Expand Marketing Power of Celebrations

French President Emmanuel Macron and other European leaders used the Notre Dame Celebration to enhance political connections with President-Elect Donald Trump despite the attendance of the First Lady, Jill Biden, and her daughter.

From an American perspective, this was an unusual move since there is only one President of the US at a time and Joe Biden remains President until January 20, 2025.

Concerned about Trump’s desire to impose tariffs and his close alliance with Putin, the European heads of State willingly stretched the rules to get pre-inauguration insights into their future colleague.

They knew the media-hungry 47th President of the US couldn’t resist an invitation-only event, especially when it would translate to prime global news and photoshoots.

Trump approached Macron wearing an oversized yellow silk necktie shining out of his overcoat like it was made to order for France’s Sun King, Louis XIV. Trump extended his puny paw and played handsy with Macron. He made sure his hand was on top before shaking hands with the French President to show his superiority.

Actionable Marketing Tip

• Be ready for existing opportunities to promote your brand and products. Monitor related businesses and events to find new opportunities to expand your reach.

Arab Spring Redux: Syria Overthrows President

The Middle East stole global public attention in the early hours of Sunday morning local time when the Arab Spring finally reached the Syrian capital over a decade after other countries. Opposition forces surged into Damascus declaring the country liberated from President Bashar al-Assad’s 24 year rule.

In 2011, the Arab Spring broke across the world on Twitter (now X). Social media enabled ordinary citizens to hold up their phones and show the world what was happening in real time. While the lack of delay for editors or fact checkers was good for these revolutionaries, social media has lost its way due to its overreliance on algorithms, advertiser needs and owner interference.

Back then, I described it as follows:

“Egypt, the oldest civilization in the world, had the most civilized revolution. … Social media didn’t start the revolution; it amplified it for people outside of Egypt and made it a global event. … if you’re motivated, you can always find a way to get your message out even when the government shuts the Internet down.”

In Social Media and Egyptian Revolution, I raised what appeared to be an important question at the time:

“The Egyptian revolution will be a tipping point for social media, the way that Desert Storm was a turning point for CNN [as a global TV network.]”

Yet social media has become manipulated by players with negative intentions, not only targeting members but also, the broader media community. News has lost its objectivity and relationship to fact checking.

As a result, the public has lost its faith in the media and often only tune into talking heads whose views they share. In turn, this has eroded faith in other key institutions such as the government. During the recent US Presidential Election, the promotion of falsehoods with objections to fact checking by one party caused actual harm to otherwise innocent citizens.

Actionable Media Tips

• Use care when participating on social media platforms. Know who, what and how your information is used.
• Get your information from reliable news sources where facts are checked. This doesn’t mean podcasts with large audiences. It means staff members who are paid to verify the truth. Among my favorites are ProPublica, NPR, The Guardian and The Economist. While I’m a fan of The New York Times and grew up with it at the breakfast table, it has a liberal perspective.

► Marketing Opportunity Costs

Why You Must Measure Marketing Opportunity Costs

Over mango martinis, I confided to a close friend and former colleague that I found writing this newsletter painful due to the pressure to produce quality content that no longer brings me joy or supports my current work goal, namely writing fiction.

Two years ago, I pivoted to focusing on writing fiction full-time. I’ve had this dream since I was 8 years old and woke up early to write. On the third-grade SRA cards (BTW, I have no idea what the letters stand for), I wrote “Author” on the line that asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

During the mid-1990s, I studied writing fiction and poetry at classes in Manhattan and during Summer conferences with prize-winning authors while I worked full-time as a marketer for Citibank.

To be honest, creating this special missive for you takes up to 15 hours of my time to write and edit it. In addition, my webmaster spends about 8 hours editing and programming it into my email provider, AWeber, and publishing it on my website.

Despite sending the newsletter every other week, I pay the same price as if I mailed it more frequently. Further, I’m charged for features I either don’t need or don’t work for my newsletter and website. And this is before their massive 100+% increase coming in January, 2025.

Without boring you with the details, the monetary and opportunity cost of the newsletter continues to increase at an exponential rate.

As I taught my NYU graduate students in my Finance for Marketers class, the key financial factor for any business is:

Always cover your variable costs in the short run and all of your costs in the long run. Without doing this, you lose money and go out of business.

In terms of costs, this newsletter has serious problems. It has high and increasing costs and It doesn’t generate any income to offset these costs. As a media entity, it has no subscription fees, no advertisers, and/or no other forms of income.

Due to the time and brain space this newsletter requires, its opportunity cost to me is high. It interrupts my fiction writing and takes time I need for fiction.

While I appreciate your readership, I can no longer afford the opportunity cost of keeping it going. Please know that this isn’t about the money and time I’ve invested in it without payback. (Don’t tell my MBA accounting professors I said this!)

It’s about my precious time. Like you, I have no idea how much of it is left. What I know for certain, I want to spend my time laser-focused on my main goal of writing fiction, not newsletters.

Since I’m not ready to say goodbye to you quite yet, here’s what I plan to do:

• Download your names and email addresses so I can communicate with you once I achieve several of my fiction writing goals.
• Examine other email options including Substack where I can make income and offer other products aligned with my current goals. if you have informatin or suggestions, please let me know.
• Meet with those of you in the New York City vicinity; if you let me know you’re interested in a writing group, please contact me.

During this time, my husband and I are also in the process of renovating our uptown apartment. Unlike our friends with a weekend home, ours are both in Manhattan.

Please understand that this isn’t goodbye. It’s time to focus on my lifelong goal of writing a fiction book.

Wishing you and those you care about the best for the holidays whichever ones you celebrate.

Heidi