If you are interested in learning how to create lasting change – either on your dairy, in an organization or even at the most personal level for yourself, you may enjoy reading The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.

For a dairy producer, the milk, feed and energy price fluctuations have a huge impact on cash flow, equity and profitability. So naturally, you want to know the outlook for 2014. If I used this space to write about what’s going to happen in the 2014 markets, the facts would change before the ink was dry.

It doesn’t matter where the market has been – only where it is going. We encourage producers to look forward and not base decisions on what has happened in the past.

Happy days are here again. As I write this, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is in record territory, trading above 15,000. The hit song on the kids’ iPods is “Get Lucky.” Optimism for a good 2013 crop has brought feed buying opportunities. And dairy producers seem optimistic that milk prices will go up.

In health and fitness circles, people are often encouraged to “know your numbers.” Key statistics like height, weight, body mass index, cholesterol and blood pressure numbers are often used as basic measurements – or at least benchmarks for embarking on a fitness program.

The author who brought us Black Swans (unexpected events with big consequences) is back, and he’s raising a very thought-provoking question every dairy producer should ask in this era of market volatility: Is your dairy “fragile” or “antifragile?” The author is Nassim Nicholas Taleb, professor of risk engineering at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute. His new book, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, will make you think about how to strengthen your business to survive ups and downs.

How high could the corn price possibly go? $9? $12? $24? By when? These are the questions on the minds of many agricultural producers. Whether you produce corn or feed it, you want to know if the high is in or if it is yet to come.

Editor's note: This article first appeared in PDPW’s Dairy’s Bottom Line Tabloid, June 2012. It is referenced here courtesy of Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin (PDPW). Click here to read Progressive Dairyman Editor Walt Cooley's review of Great by Choice. "Think back to 15 years ago, and consider what’s happened since, the destabilizing events — in the world, in your country, in the markets, in your work, in your life—that defied all expectations. We can be astonished, confounded, shocked, stunned, delighted, or terrified, but rarely prescient.