"...if you don't do it someone else will, so you may as well be the one to get the money." Be careful!
Buffett has talked about this type of thinking and how it can get business leaders and managers into a lot of trouble.
When you really look at the saying, it's a form of manipulation. It's the reverse of using social proof in a positive way.
In the end, we're not the ones that "may as will get the money" simply because someone else might.
Social proof is using the motto that many others are doing it so you should too. One obvious way this is used is when real people and users of products or services offer their testimonials on how something has worked great for them.
The reverse of that is getting a business to make decisions based on "everybody else is doing it" or as above "if you don't someone else will." When it comes down to it, let the "someone else" be the one. If the only reason we make money in a certain way is if we don't do it someone else will get it, we've already lost. A business doesn't exist for the purpose of hindering some other business from making money a certain way. Businesses exist to provide excellent products or services to people.
The appeal above is to a person's greed. Don't fall for it. Anything we get into has to make sense for what a business is and represents. Who cares if there's opportunity out there outside of our purpose and expertise? Let those that understand those things pursue them.
Buffett was faced with this temptation more than once in his business career. Maybe the greatest pressure for him and Berkshire (BRK-A) was in the dotcomb bubble, which almost everybody mocked him because he didn't enter into the crowd investing in high tech because "if you don't someone else will."
His holding back and not giving into the temptation was proven the most wise thing to do as investors got slaughtered who ran after the space thinking it would never stop growing.
We have to stick to our knitting, stick to what we know. There's enough money out there for everybody, we don't need to go down alleys and streets we have no idea where they end up. Let someone else chase opportunities, we should just continue pursuing our market.
Other Buffett Resources:
MSU students have special visit with billionaire Warren Buffett
Sticking to what you know Core businesses
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