“If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” -Isaac Newton … And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” Steve Jobs, the great innovator, said in the PBS series Triumph of the Nerds, “It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then try to bring those things into what you’re doing. What they really mean is that they’re stealing inspiration. I can’t list all of the hugely successful people who have proudly declared their habit of stealing ideas. Picasso once said that nothing starts without inspiration from something else. If you start with yourself, you’ll narrow down your choices immediately, and that will make the ultimate decision easier to make and give you better results. Right now, you’re trying to make a decision that’s going to work. There’s a time for you to be challenging yourself and possibly stepping out of your comfort zone, but this isn’t it. The kinds of people you like to work with or be aroundīy answering these questions you’re narrowing in on your areas of competence and that will help you get rid of options that aren’t right for you.Choosing a solution or option that relies on you doing something you aren’t good at or don’t like doing is a recipe for failure. When we’re in a tight spot, when we’ve got a tough problem to solve, when we’ve got a tough decision to make, the first step should be to discard any options that are outside our circle of competence. “There are all sorts of things I’m no good at and there are all kinds of investment opportunities I’m not able to comprehend.” “My brain is not a general-purpose brain that works marvelously in all situations,” he said in an essay in the book Getting There. If an opportunity to invest comes up and it seems great but it falls outside his circle, he passes. He quotes Tom Watson, the founder of IBM, who said, “I’m no genius but I’m smart in spots and I stay around those spots.”īuffett himself sticks to investing in the types of industries and companies he understands and claims that that has made him a successful investor. Warren Buffett is famous for a lot of things, but one of his most well known pieces of advice is to know your circle of competence and stay within it. Use the three steps below to stop spinning around and around, get some perspective, and discover your answer. The key is to start cutting through the chaos of options-to calm the blizzard-so you can start putting one foot in front of the other. Here’s the truth: For every hard decision, there is always a solution just waiting to be discovered. You become paralyzed, because you can’t seem to make a decision and move forward. You feel overwhelmed, like you’re in a white-out blizzard and it’s impossible to see. When you have a decision like this hanging over you, it creates stress and worry. Sometimes it isn’t as major, but it feels just as hard to make a choice. Sometimes it feels like a major life event, like getting married or starting a business. Where should I live? Should I go for that promotion? What’s the right career change for me? Should I quit my job? Should I start my own business? Which of these businesses should I invest in? Should I take six months off and travel the world? Should I ask her to marry me? Is it time to have kids?Įvery single one of us faces tough decisions all the time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |