Have you ever wondered about what makes some people successful and others not? The following video is a presentation by Richard ST. John at the 2005 TED conference where he presents his research on the secrets of success.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Advice for people in their 20s
I recently had a conversation with my Manager and Partner on my project about advices for people in their 20s. The Partner gave one piece of advice that I think is particularly helpful.
My Partner told me that people in their careers early on often lack an understanding of what is best for them. People pursue jobs on the notion of "fun," but in reality, fun shouldn't be the primary objective. He suggests that in determining a career, it is best to first find out what is your "spike."
I asked him what this term meant and he replied, "Spike, is the key thing that you have that differentiates you from the rest of the crowd." He then went on to say that when you are young, if you can start concentrating on building skills that will lead to the creation of a solid spike, then you'll have a good solid foundation for the rest of your career.
I found this advise to be really helpful. I think in one way or another, most people generally apply this concept to their jobs by pursuing careers they excel in some form. This is usually due to the fact that they have a spike over their fellow peers. But as I thought about the advice, I started to refine it. During a conversation with my roommate, I realized a way to build upon the spike advice is to re-name the term to moat. Thus, the advice would be: "It is better to build skills early on the further one's moat" or something of that nature.
The reason for me to choose the term moat is because it is already a familiarize term investors use to evaluate companies to determine their differentiating factor. By applying it skills, I can transfer the same concepts and analysis.
Moats:
Moats in companies typically come in two forms: width and depth. Applied to skills, the width can be thought of as is how much general abilities and knowledge you possess. What are the general skills that you have to offer? A person might have a wide (i.e., knowledge of everything) but shallow depth. For competitors, such moats can be easily breeched. It might get your feet wet and you'll have a long walk, but no big deal.
Similarly, a deep (i.e., specific knowledge) but short moat isn't any more helpful because competitors can jump over the moat. For example, an individual with very deep knowledge of manufacturing might be highly valued until the entire manufacturing process becomes automated.
Thus, the best moat is the one that is both deep and wide.
Here is where I take the advice a little further. How does one go about building this wide and deep moat? To building a moat with both characteristics takes lots of time. Just think of how long it takes to construct an actual moat. Thus, I offer the following guidelines.
1. It is best to start off with building a wide moat when young. While wide moats won't get you very far, it is a good starting point because it allows flexibility in a career. If you don't know where you want to specialize in so having general skills that are transferable across industries helps more than learning specialized skills that are not.
2. After you realized which area you are particularly interested, it is then time to build the depth.
3. But having only a single area where your moat is deep isn't very helpful. It is best to have a few areas to maximize the barrier of your moat. Furthermore, by this stage of your career, you'll need less width and more depth.
Look, I just created my three stage development cycle for building the moat. If you have further suggestions, let me know.
My Partner told me that people in their careers early on often lack an understanding of what is best for them. People pursue jobs on the notion of "fun," but in reality, fun shouldn't be the primary objective. He suggests that in determining a career, it is best to first find out what is your "spike."
I asked him what this term meant and he replied, "Spike, is the key thing that you have that differentiates you from the rest of the crowd." He then went on to say that when you are young, if you can start concentrating on building skills that will lead to the creation of a solid spike, then you'll have a good solid foundation for the rest of your career.
I found this advise to be really helpful. I think in one way or another, most people generally apply this concept to their jobs by pursuing careers they excel in some form. This is usually due to the fact that they have a spike over their fellow peers. But as I thought about the advice, I started to refine it. During a conversation with my roommate, I realized a way to build upon the spike advice is to re-name the term to moat. Thus, the advice would be: "It is better to build skills early on the further one's moat" or something of that nature.
The reason for me to choose the term moat is because it is already a familiarize term investors use to evaluate companies to determine their differentiating factor. By applying it skills, I can transfer the same concepts and analysis.
Moats:
Moats in companies typically come in two forms: width and depth. Applied to skills, the width can be thought of as is how much general abilities and knowledge you possess. What are the general skills that you have to offer? A person might have a wide (i.e., knowledge of everything) but shallow depth. For competitors, such moats can be easily breeched. It might get your feet wet and you'll have a long walk, but no big deal.
Similarly, a deep (i.e., specific knowledge) but short moat isn't any more helpful because competitors can jump over the moat. For example, an individual with very deep knowledge of manufacturing might be highly valued until the entire manufacturing process becomes automated.
Thus, the best moat is the one that is both deep and wide.
Here is where I take the advice a little further. How does one go about building this wide and deep moat? To building a moat with both characteristics takes lots of time. Just think of how long it takes to construct an actual moat. Thus, I offer the following guidelines.
1. It is best to start off with building a wide moat when young. While wide moats won't get you very far, it is a good starting point because it allows flexibility in a career. If you don't know where you want to specialize in so having general skills that are transferable across industries helps more than learning specialized skills that are not.
2. After you realized which area you are particularly interested, it is then time to build the depth.
3. But having only a single area where your moat is deep isn't very helpful. It is best to have a few areas to maximize the barrier of your moat. Furthermore, by this stage of your career, you'll need less width and more depth.
Look, I just created my three stage development cycle for building the moat. If you have further suggestions, let me know.
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