Lone Ranger Economics

"Desperately Seeking Success"

In 1985, there was a movie starring Rosanna Arquette (the inspiration of the Toto song “Rosanna”) and Madonna named “Desperately Seeking Susan.” The theme of the movie is not relevant, but it did inspire a noteworthy Hood to Coast team name called “Desperately Seeking Seaside.” This lesson is about desperately seeking success. To demonstrate this principle, I will make reference to Aiden Pullen’s sophomore track season.

Two weeks prior to the District Meet, Aiden had a PR of 10:12 for the 3200 meters. He was the 4th fastest, but only 3 qualified for state that year. The state qualifying was in the 9:45 range. Aiden came up to me one day in workout and said “How can I cut 27 seconds off my time in the next two weeks?” Wow! That was a powerful question.

I let him know that stepping to the line with better competition was worth 5 seconds or so, peaking for District was 10 seconds or so, then he would have to scratch and claw a few more seconds here and there.

The next week he ran 10:03 at the sub-district meet with the “better competition.” He had started his scratching and clawing! The next week had a few emotional boasts including getting a nice car that definitely helped. The boys 3200 District Race materialized into a crowd favorite when Aiden came from 50 meters back the last two laps and caught up to a pair of Mark Morris runners to battle it out for the last two places for State. The three were all within one stride of each other as they started passing in front of the grandstand on the final lap. Even though Aiden came out on the short end of the stick by a step, he had an amazing 15 second P.R., clocking in at 9:48.53.

His amazing 24 seconds of improvement in 2 weeks manifested due to his desperation for success. He found things that he had to do to make it happen. That is the mindset needed in this LGFRFR game, just like when you would get the maps for LGR, frantically trying to decipher the clues and develop a strategy for running around town efficiently to grab the most amount of PAWZ. We must do the same now.

When I first uncovered that Silver was so undervalued that each ounce should be worth at least $200 while it was in the $20 range, I had to treat $20 as if it was worth $200, which should be a starting point for its future value, assigning a value of 10 times what I could cash in on. So I would sell things on CraigsList, like my treadmill. I think I sold it for $150, but I thought of it like it was “future” $1,500 since I bought silver with the proceeds. My general mindset all spring was that I just had to scrape up another $20 so I could buy another 1 oz Silver round.

For Aiden Pullen, it was a two week "upgrade" in his efforts to seek success. For Isaac Stinchfield, it was a longer process of waking up early every morning (about 4:30 to get his extra miles in prior to Seminary class) to pursue his future success. If I could find a job to work for $15-20 for an hour, it was like I was DESPERATELY working for “future” $150-200 an hour. At least that is how I thought about it in my mind. That made it easier and more exciting knowing that my time and other resources (things I sold on Craigslist) were 10 times more valuable now than they would be later if I could exchange them for Silver! Now each ounce of Silver is about $30, but now I am convinced that eventually they will be worth more than $300 in just a few years.

Take that mindset! In LGFRFR, whoever treats silver like it is already worth $100 an ounce will be successful. Whoever treats it like it is already $1,000 an ounce will be extremely successful at LGFRFR! Desperately seek success! Desperately seek SILVER!

Hi Ho Silver, AWAY!