IN THIS ISSUE
- Why you should go big or go home?
- A guide to pursuing opportunities
- Why old-time wisdom is sometimes not right for you
- Why you might minor in major things
I’ve been pondering a joint venture proposal where the payoff seems like a few dollars here and there.
It seems like a fish-in-a-barrell type of opportunity.
Meanwhile, in my mastermind, I’ve been following someone else’s $1k joint venture opportunity.
And then it hit me, I’m majoring in a minor thing!
Jim Rohn Said It First
I then got curious about how I even recalled this phrase, “don’t major in minor things.”
Turns out it was originally coined by Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, as a riff on time management.
If you spend all your time (major!) on minimally important or impactful (minor!) things, your results are going to be suboptimal.
Now, he was talking about how a salesperson was spending their time, but the advice applies to all of us.
Time is finite for us all.
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Classifying Opportunities
If I take this advice I have to decide what constitutes a major opportunity and what is merely a minor opportunity.
If I do that, it seems like I have this framework:
- Always focus on major opportunities (requires patience)
- Never ever pursue minor opportunities (requires discipline)
- If no options exist, turn minor opportunities into major opportunities (requires creativity and is hard!).
This sounds like, “go big or go home” to me?
Swing for the fences?!
Good Advice?
But is this good advice?
In baseball, it’s not entirely about the home runs; base hits have their place too.
Also, home runs are hard to hit on a routine basis.
I think you’re looking to balance the reward of the opportunity with the probability of success which to me means some of those minor opportunities make a lot of sense.
The other thing you can’t ignore is the compounding of smaller, high-probability wins.
And the experience you get and the impact these wins have on your psyche.
Continuous improvement through minor gains and wins!
Or, “Just get on base.”
My Advice
I write these newsletters as much for me as I do for you, so this section is a bit self-serving.
Here’s where I’m at with this:
You have to start small.
You have to stack small successes; you need singles and doubles.
You have to take action to get experience; you need at-bats.
You will miss dozens of minor opportunities waiting for the majors; home runs.
Your failures will help you get better and it’s essential that you learn from them along the way.
Wrapping Up…
This is a short newsletter because I am traveling, but I hope it’s been thought-provoking and worth the quick read.
It seems now that I’ve come full circle—I’m going to minor in major things for a while.
I’ll let you know how that joint venture goes when I get it going.
Live long and prosper.
— Bill
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