There is a saying that “If it were easy, everyone would do it.” Last night I was watching the Amazing Race. It was interesting to watch a team try and land a LearJet simulator. As an experienced pilot I found it remarkable how frustrated the teams got. The last place team took twelve try’s and that was just a landing, no emergencies or bad weather.
Before I could laugh at the teams results, my wife said “Wow, I could never do that!” and she has been in simulators. Having nearly 12,000 hours of practice flying airplanes and simulators, I am pretty confident I could have done it in one try. Two at worst, and if it took two I would be pretty embarrassed. If asked to fill in for one of the teams like a “phone a friend” I would have gladly stepped in because after all of my years of practice it would be relatively easy for me to do.
Many books have been written on mastering a skill with 10,000 hours of practice. The idea is that if you do anything for 10,000 hours you will be pretty good at it. There are two other factors though. One is natural talent.
Natural Talent is the the mental area that lets you get the 10,000 hours to begin with. Because you have the right talent you actually get the 10,000 hours of practice. Let’s say that you don’t have a Natural Talent for talking to people. You could work very hard at learning how, but you will never get to the point of being an expert at it because you won’t like it and won’t have the drive to get there. Put it on your “do less” list and go find something else to do.
Physical ability is another factor. This one should be obvious and is often overlooked. I don’t ever expect to have the physical ability of this years winner of the US Open Surfing contest. While that should be obvious, some parents try and “round out” their children forcing them into activities they aren’t physically ready for or able to do.
NFL players have both a natural talent and a physical ability to play football or they would have been filtered out some time sooner. There is only so much time in life, and at the end of 5,000 hours of practice, the players with the natural talent and physical ability really start to stand out. The others, have to start over and find something else to do.
The Natural Talent factor is fuzzy for many people. They don’t know how to put into words what their natural talents are. Even after getting test results back, most people have no clue what to do with them.
I like to look at it a different way. Just look at the last month and list all of the things that came easy to you, and the things you had to really work at. In school what classes came easy, which ones were hard? For instance, what if you got tired of looking at your storage cabinet, and cleaned the entire thing in a day. You organized and labeled everything so it was ready to go. No one else did it because it was “hard” and yet you found it easy. There is a task to put on your list of “do more”. You have a talent for organization, the physical ability to do it so it should be more of your role in your job or business.
What if you were asked to help teach a group of people and you really hated standing up and talking to the group? Simple, just add public speaking to your “do less” list and find a way to make sure it isn’t part of your job or contribution to your business.
In business, each person has their own set of talents and strengths. In addition, there are physical limitations that can change a persons ability. For instance in flying you need to be able to lift 75 pounds and press on the brakes with 75 pounds of force. Why 75 pounds? I really don’t know, but if you can’t do it, the chances of becoming a commercial airline pilot are slim to none.
In business my former employees can tell you what I am really good at, and a couple of things I am not good at. Generally though I try not to do anything I am not good at so they just won’t know. I learned a long time ago that I will never be the “whole man concept” kind of guy, and I don’t think you should either.
In todays world, superior specialties are rewarded. Your business should specialize in a singular area, and you should specialize in tasks that suit your natural talents. If you hate calling clients, don’t do it. Hire someone who likes to do it and has a high empathy talent. Do more of what you do, and you will get more done in less time with less effort. Simple as that
While I like to write, I don’t like to write code for websites and I really don’t like to work with graphics. I am not good at it, anything I make looks amateur and worse I don’t even enjoy trying. I recently spent three hours to try and get one picture right on a Saturday, and someone else had it done in 12 minutes Monday morning. What a waste of my Saturday. Now, I come up with the ideas and spec out the details and let Sveta and Christine do their magic. Most of the time they take my idea and make something even better in way less time than it takes me to turn on the computer.
Golf is one of those things that I can be good at, I have the physique for, but I don’t have the desire to practice enough to make a living. It is something I do for fun. Surfing and Skiing are in the same category. I have enough practice that I can do any of them to an average level. I stop there because it is no fun to try and become better. I don’t live and breath any of them.
In business, it is very different. I look forward to finding another book to read to find just one more idea that can help my clients. Writing down ideas that might help a business owner make a breakthrough is something I work on constantly. I am always looking for advice to get better. If a client calls when I am on my way to the beach, I will turn around 99% of the time, because the business challenge is more fun than the beach. Golf, Skiing and Surfing are mental breaks, not a profession for me. I still put a focused effort into each of them, just not a continuous focused effort.
In your business, what are the things that you like to do? What is it that comes easy and what do you hate to do? Find a way to do more of the easy things, and less of the things that you hate to do. If you dread calling the client for money, find someone who likes doing it. There are people out there who are very good at it. Do yourself a favor and ask them if they want to do it first though. Don’t hire someone and later drop the bomb on them.
If everyone could play golf easily, there would be no reason to play, and no PGA tour. If everyone could land a jet, it wouldn’t make a great challenge on the “Amazing Race” TV show. If everyone could do what you do in business easily, you wouldn’t have a business The good news is they can’t do it as easy as you can so they pay you. Only you can do what you do. Only your business can do what it does because you are there.
At the end of the day, the more things you can do on your “do more” list and the fewer things you can do on your “do less” list, the more effective you will be, the easier your workday will be. Trying to be what you are not is just that, trying.
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Thank you for your insights.