If you’re like my wife who once got addicted to playing Plantz Vs Zombies, you would have heard the popular game “Angry Birds” by now. “Angry Birds” is a popular puzzle video game where the player uses a slingshot to launch the birds to try to destroy the pigs hiding under protective structures such as wood, ice and stone.
After a watching my wife get excited playing the game, I decided to try it myself. Lo and behold, I got addicted to playing the game as well. Now, my wife is waiting for me to put down the game so she can play. She’ll have to wait her turn this time around. 🙂
While playing, I realized there are some things about the game that are also applicable to managing your own money.
Here the Top 10 Things the Angry Birds Can Teach You About Money
1. It’s OK to miss
In the game, you launch the bird by getting ready…aiming at your target as much as you can…and then releasing the slingshot so the bird can fly! You missed your target? Try again!
In real life, it’s also OK to try again. You may lose money. You may feel discouraged. You may think your money problems are eating you alive because of a bad financial decision. It’s not the end of the world. You can try again. And again, until you succeed.
2. Some birds are better than others
In the game, there are three other types of birds that can destroy the hardest wooden structures when you “tap” on them. The blue bird splits into three small birds. The black bird explodes like a bomb. The white bird drops explosive eggs. Each one is suited for different instances. But all of them helps you destroy the structures easier.
In life, there are a lot of ways to earn money. The most common of course is having a job. You can sell your crap (according to Baker of ManVsDebt.com). You can invest in real-estate. You can invest in the stock market. Or you can just simply find other ways to solve other people’s problems, and they will be more than willing to pay you so you can take their problem away from them.
3. Birds don’t fly with the pigs
In the game, I always wondered why the birds are angry at the pigs. While reading more about the game, I realized they are actually trying to retrieve their eggs taken away by the evil green pigs.
Pigs can destroy your eggs. At least figuratively. Pigs are people who scam people of their hard earned money without giving value in return. Pigs are deceitful individuals who have nothing better to do other than send you a spammy text message asking for a prepaid load. The lesson? —- If you want to get ahead, don’t fly with the pigs.
4. Protect your pigs with a strong shelter
Ok, let’s try taking the perspective of the pig for a moment. If you know the game, the pigs are pitiful creatures. Because of their round shape, they just roll over the structures until some wood drop on them and they die. In the game, there are three types of shelter — wood, stone and ice. The hardest to destroy is stone. So it’s definitely a good idea to house your pigs made of stones.
When it comes to your money. Be very sure where you are placing your bets on. As some people say, put all your eggs into one basket and watch that basket. The key phrase is “watch that basket”. You have to protect it with all your might. Otherwise, you lose all the money you’ve got.
5. Life gets harder and harder…so you can get better and better
Since angry birds is a puzzle game, it gets harder and harder as you level up. For instance, the higher you go, the more strong stone structures you have to destroy, and the more weird looking pig houses there are.
In real-life you should try to learn something new every day. You can start by learning to save your money. Then you can learn to invest the money you saved and make it grow. Afterwards, you can then go on to other more challenging things.
Keep the hunger alive. Keep on learning. Keep on taking those challenges so you can get better.
6. The more you launch…the better you get
In the game, the first time you launch the bird, you fail miserably. The next time, you can adjust your aim so it goes a little bit nearer your target. And you can go and adjust your aim on and on until you hit your target.
In real life, nothing beats taking action. You’ve not really learned something until you’ve done it yourself. You can read all the books you want about investing in real-estate, but if you’ve never purchased an investment property in your life, you lack the necessary experience to truly learn investing not only mentally but emotionally as well.
Sometimes, people are held back by their own fear. Fear of failure. Fear of being wrong. Fear of being different from everyone else. Unfortunately, the more time you spend worrying about your fear, the stronger it gets. The ironic thing is once you take a little bit of action, the fear actually goes away.
7. Don’t try to break a stone…learn to quit
At certain stages of the game, you have to deal with stone structures. They are strong. They are indestructible no matter how hard the birds hit the stone. You can put everything you’ve got but as long as you’re hitting the same spot on that very hard stone, you will never be able to bring it down.
In life, it’s OK to quit. You don’t have to go through life being miserable. If you think that what you’re trying to do is not working, you can quit. If it won’t take you to where you want to be, then by all means, quit. You can be true to your dreams even if you quit often. The interesting thing is, the most successful people quit a lot of things so they can focus on the things that really matter to them.
8. Aim for the weakest spot
The trick to playing the game of “Angry Birds” is aiming at the weakest spot of the structures. The structures may be made of the hardest stone there is, but if one spot is made of wood, you can aim your bird through that one tiny spot of weakness and you can bring the whole house down.
This is especially true for business. If you want to be successful, you have to stand out. You have to be different. You need to offer your customers a new better way to solve their problems. If you do, it would be like hitting all your competitors in their weakest spot.
9. There are a lot of ways to get to your destination
In the game, you can aim the birds high so it arcs upwards and aim straight down to the structures. Or you can aim them horizontally so you hit the structures by the side. No matter what aiming you want to do, you can turn down the structures as long as you keep on aiming at its weakest spot.
There’s no such thing as one way ticket to success. Henry Sy became successful because of SM malls. Manny Pacquiao is rich because of boxing. Warrent Buffet became one of the richest man in the world by getting really good at investing. No matter where you are right now, you can be still be rich by finding your own way to succe
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10. Have fun…no one gets out of life alive
The game is addictive because it’s fun. It’s challenging. It makes your mind think of different ways to achieve your goal of bringing the structures down so you can destroy the pigs.
Life should be the same. It should inspire you to keep on dreaming. It should give you challenges to overcome so you can tap into your inner genius and become the rich person that you truly are.
And it should certainly be fun.
Keep having fun. Keep learning new things. Keep believing in your dreams.
Cheers!