Guy walks into a high-end auto repair shop with his very old car needing repairs.
The mechanic takes a look at the car and says "We're not the right tool for you. You need someone who can patch this together to last another 20,000 miles. Sometime between now and then, you need to sell the car." That mechanic got ALL of that guy's auto repair work for the next 15 years.
A man I just met told me that story as an example of how many of his best, long-term working relationships began with someone saying "No thank you" to an assignment.
Focus on and away from
You can't focus on something without turning your focus away from something else. You can't build a differentiated strength without opening up a relative gap. The prescription is to:
- Decide what you want to be particularly good at
- Build the strengths required to do that
- Walk away from distractions – And have the courage to tell others what you're not so good at
What are you particularly good at? For what problem are you the right tool? What problems might come your way that others can solve even better?
