Tributum Newsletter #37

Hello

One of the best WhatsApp image shares I received recently is where Forest Gump sits on a bench staring into space with the caption “And just like that everybody on Facebook stopped being infectious disease experts and became international relations experts”. Hopefully not for too long.

I started to write about the SA record high unemployment and the World Bank report listing us as the most unequal society in the world but deleted the paragraphs. Firstly, because I think there is enough negative news out there. Secondly because some of my questions may have gotten me deleted, literally. So on to hopefully more positive things…

I am currently reading The Barefoot Coach by Paddy Upton. I’m not even halfway through the book and there has been some great lessons already – all going against popular thinking. Paddy and Gary Kirsten had no cricket coaching experience (not even at primary school level) when they started coaching the Indian Cricket Team end 2007. 4 years later they won the Cricket World Cup. They learned on the job and were honest about it. Remember – experts also started out knowing little. Noah never built a boat before he was asked to build the Ark…take the opportunity and see.

However, the biggest lesson so far is on improvement. In short – stop working on your weaknesses and what you don’t like. Better yet – eliminate doing them if you can. Only focus on your strengths – delegate your weaknesses. If you get a pass mark for what you are bad at then that is good enough. It’s pointless working hard to get a weakness from 55% to a 65% if you can work on getting a strength from 75% to 95%. That resonates with Warren Buffet’s theory of success and focus.

I’ve mentioned it before but repeat it again. Write down the top 20 things that you are good at on a page in order from number 1 (best) to 20 (20th best). Now draw a line through numbers 6 to 20 and stop doing them. Only do 1 to 5.  Successful/happy (insert your own description…) people are not the people who do what they should. They are the ones that have stopped doing what they should not be doing. Maybe improving a weakness helps you to avoid failure, but focussing on strengths gives you a better chance of success.

If only we can master the massive skill of saying “No”, but that would require improving a weakness for most of us… Until next time, keep breathing.