The Cost of our Trade-Offs, Passion against Mastery, The true value of money and ... more

The Cost of our Trade-Offs:

Recently, I came across a thought I really liked.

‘Despite what we have been told, we can not do everything. You can do anything, but … you can not do everything. What this means is that you pick up a path and close your eyes to every other path, focusing on maximising the opportunities available to you in the path you have picked’

Now to me, this thought has two parts to it:

1. The first part is that we waste our time, overthinking the path to choose. This consumes what little time we have. What we need to do is pick up a path and stick to it.
2. The second part is the fact we picked a path means other pathways are closed off to us. A mother who choose to stay at home with her kids may find it hard to be on the Forbes Women Cover of 50 over 50 Business Leaders.

This does not necessarily mean the mother failed. It means she choose her path and should focus solely on walking her path.

Thus, when you pick up a path or an option, keep in mind that you are trading off other options. At the end, what matters is that you are satisfied with the option you picked.

The Concept of Passion at Work:

I have been reading Carl Newport’s ‘So good they can’t ignore you’ (and it is so interesting a read that I would advise you to pick it up)

In his book, Carl makes a very interesting argument against the concept of passion. Passion doesn’t really drive the workforce. Experience + Skills does. In his argument, Many entry level professionals hate what they do, even if it is their passion. The more skilled, the more experience, the more autonomy a person has over his Job, the more he/ she feels passionate about it.

And I think it is a very interesting concept. Passion doesn’t come at the beginning. Passion comes with mastery and experience. Which means that you can actually pick a field that you have no passion for, and with enough hard work, learning, experience and time, you would feel passionate about it.

To take this idea further, it would not be farfetched to say ‘You do not hate your Job. You have not spent enough time on it to feel passionate about it’

The True Value of our Money:

Money value should not be measured in figures and numbers. The true value of money lies in what it can give to us. You can pay House cleaning services $76 and the value of your money lies in having a clean home. You can take a training for $1000 and you make a living from that skill. That is the true value of that money.

So I would advice, move your focus away from the numbers. Numbers alone can be deceiving. (Not my Tech friends coming for my head because of this). Numbers don’t show the full picture. Look at the value. $15 ice-cream is not really $15. It costs you a fit body. Thus, look at the true value of what you are paying for. Is it worth it or not?

The power a reputation gives you:

In our day to day lives, everything we do adds up to our reputation. How we approach our work, how we complete tasks, how long we stick to a hard task before giving it up. These and more adds up to our reputation. When we have built a reputation that tells strongly about us, it becomes a stepping stone to us as we face higher endeavours.

Till I write you again,

Osinachi Akanegbu,

Somewhere in Africa!