On Principle #4 – Think Small, Act Big

This week’s book learning is part 5 of a 5 part series from ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’ by Cal Newport. (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

The question from last week was – if we don’t worry about following our passion, how do we account for “missions/callings“?

Cal studies numerous achievers who have advanced to their cutting edge in their fields and found a pattern.

– They did not have a mission figured out when they got started

– For the most part, they had no clue what they even wanted to do when they got started

– In all cases, they found their mission ONLY after they acquired career capital (else you only end up with lots of enthusiasm about your “calling”, with nothing to show for it!)

– Why? The next big ideas in any field are found right beyond the current cutting edge, in the adjacent space that contains the possible new combinations of existing ideas

A good career mission is an innovation waiting to be discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. So, if you want to identify a mission for your working life, you must first get to the cutting edge – the only place where these missions become visible.

The conclusion here is simple – The more experience you have, the more likely you are to love your work and find a mission.

Hence, advancing to the cutting edge in a field is an act of “small” thinking, requiring you to focus on a narrow collection of subjects for a potentially long time. Once you get to the cutting edge, however, and discover a mission in the adjacent possible, you must go after it with zeal: a “big” action.

The usual way – think big and act small. ( Sketch by EB)
Cal advises us to think small instead and act big

Once you have the career capital required to identify a mission, you must still figure out how to put the mission into practice. If you don’t have a trusted strategy for making this leap from idea to execution, then like most people, you’ll probably avoid the leap altogether.

What strategy is that? Coming next week as the “bonus” part of this series..

Here’s to thinking small and focusing hard on getting to the cutting edge of what we do this week!