It’s not that hard to be in the top 10% of your field
A short detour. I am taking martial arts classes. I started when I was almost 40. My flexibility was terrible (and it is still awful, however slightly improved). The same goes for reaction speed, application of techniques, and so on. However, overall, I am amazed at how much progress happened over the last couple of years by just coming to the classes. There is a mantra repeated constantly by martial arts teachers/masters. If you want to become better, you just need to tie your belt (and train) each day.
It’s incredible how much you will improve if you continuously invest time in something. It’s a bizarre idea in a world of instant gratification that you do something each day to reap benefits in years to come. Tim Ferris would probably vote to ban me from the internet because I advocate for not using any tricks and shortcuts but doing actual work :)
One important note. I realize that many people are in a very unfortunate position of not being able to do what I preach. It’s easy for me to talk about investing time/energy when I don’t have to work two jobs just to put the food on the table. My blog mainly targeted people in software and most of us have enough flexibility (both in time and finances).
Pretty much, just showing up each day and doing something will get you to the top half. (BTW. I am not even talking about investing extra time. I literally mean, come to your workplace and do your work vs. browsing the internet or posting on Facebook or drinking coffee excessively). Yeap, the bar is that low (just doing what you suppose to do will get you in top half).
The next thing is doing something that other people don’t do / don’t want to do. Nobody on your team wants to write documentation — be that person who does it. Nobody wants to talk to people in another department — do that. This is just a bit more complex because you have to spend time finding the gaps. However, as soon as you start covering these gaps, you will become a go-to person/expert on these subjects. And this will bring you to the top 20%.
And the last thing you want to do is to be curious. Why does it work like that? Why did that happen? What else could we do? Tons of the people pretty much run precisely up to the finish line of each task and never step even an inch further. The work for such people is just something that needs to be complete and immediately forgotten. And adding a dash of curiosity on top will bring you to the top 10%
The formula is simple
- Do (honestly) your work each day
- Do what others won’t do
- Be curious/Go extra steps
