Here’s a question I think you should consider: did you waste your time watching the NFL Super Bowl on Monday? That was something I had to process when it became clear that a lot of Australians seem to think it’s OK to watch the final game of US footie on a workday!

But I think the greatest ‘crime’ might be that so many people watch a US football game and most of them don’t watch my money-making TV show on YouTube called Switzer TV Investing!

OK, I’m being self-serving and self-promotional and there are other programs that might offer more long-term value than watching a gridiron encounter starring a whole pile of people most Aussies have never heard of.

Now I’m not arguing that all of the Super Bowl between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs was all counterproductive. The Tom Brady story is a ripper.

His inspirational performance to win Super Bowl for the seventh time and to take out the Most Valuable Player award for the fifth time is an unforgettable milestone. And it is especially so when he did it as an allegedly “washed-up” 43-year old, which does make it the greatest take-out from this ‘waste of time’ activity I reckon too many Aussies endured.

But the Brady story can’t just be a “wow!” isn’t he  great thing. If it affects no change in you as the spectator, then it was a waste of time and you would have been better off watching my TV program to at least make some money!

OK, there might be another pay-off from watching the game and that’s if you went to a function and you networked and got some business or established a good contact.

As an economist I know life is continually one big opportunity cost affair. The hours spent doing this rather than that can be valued in terms of what was lost when you decided to watch Super Bowl rather than my Investing TV program, an Anthony Robbins doco on Netflix or something like the life story of Nelson Mandela.

Clearly I am being provocative in suggesting my investing program as a more valuable alternative to Super Bowl, but it has recommended a lot of stocks, such as Zip Co, which have done really well over the past year.

As the Super Bowl played out, Z1P rose 12.9% yesterday and has spiked 82% in a month and is starting look like a ‘Tom Brady’ in the making kind of stock.

Z1P

Now, I’m not saying that I don’t waste time. Over the weekend I watched the history of soccer captured in a Netflix production called The English Game. This provided a wonderful perspective on how working class towns in the north of England, such as Blackburn, wrestled the game of soccer/football from the gentleman of the Old Etonians, who were the regular FA Cup winners in the late 1800s.

Until 1883 the amateurs of Eton dominated English football because they were wealthy and had time to burn, but eventually professional players from poor backgrounds were recruited by business owners and Blackburn Olympic beat the Old Etonians for the FA Cup in 1883 and a new business called professional soccer was created.

And some weeks ago I watch a program on Stan called Mr Selfridge, about the founder of the once world’s greatest department store — Selfridges. And while I lost a lot of hours watching four seasons, what Harry Selfridge taught me about promoting a business, made the time ‘lost’ hardly a waste.

And that’s my point, you owe it to yourself and the people you lead in business, in your family or in a team you lead, to use your time to help you maximize your potential self-improvement.

And that’s what the Tom Brady is all about.

His former coach Bill Belichick at New England Patriots puts it down to three things Brady does so well.

He told yahoo.com that “Brady’s success instead comes down to three distinct advantages: his work ethic, his ability to think strategically, and his ability to narrow his focus on the moment at hand.”

Those who know him say Brady benefits from fluency — the ability to adapt to the situation at hand for optimal performance.

NFL experts have advanced many reasons for Brady’s greatness but I bet he has the same drive that powered that great tennis player Chris Evert who once said: “There were times when deep down I wanted to win so badly I could actually will it to happen. I think most of my career was based
on desire.”

But wait there’s more. People like Brady and Evert, are deeply committed to self-improvement and so they are really careful not to waste too much time!