Why Being Good at 3 Things Beats Being Great at 1
I consumed a lot of content from Tim Ferriss last week. I ended up watching the clip from Sriram Krishnan that he recommended, read Marc Andreessen views on skill and education and watched Tim’s 3-hour long podcast with David Senra from the Founders podcast. Here are the useful insights that I collected:
1. Seek to be a double / triple / quadruple threat
“If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:
Become the best at one specific thing.
Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.
The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it. – Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert
Sriram Krishnan used the second strategy to rise at Microsoft. He says:
“Because I had a technical background but I was also talking to customers on this very niche thing, I became a worldwide foremost expert on that thing. How were they using it? What were they doing? What were the issues they were facing? I was a master because nobody cared enough to make themselves the master.
I had an accent. I looked different. I’m weirdly tall. But when it came to this topic - the programming we can do - I was the expert. And I knew it. Because I spent every night, everyday, every month, and nobody could take that away from me.
So when we had a huge meeting and we had to make these presentations to these execs like Steve Ballmer, I was comfortable because I had done all the work and I was an expert.”
“When I built this sense of mastery, I found my way to comfort.”
“If you can make yourself the absolute expert in one area, you’re going to feel so good and it’s going to open doors.”
Marc Andreessen adds that successful CEOs are the result of the second strategy, not the first:
“The fact is, this is even the secret formula to becoming a CEO. All successful CEOs are like this. They are almost never the best product visionaries, or the best salespeople, or the best marketing people, or the best finance people, or even the best managers, but they are top 25% in some set of those skills, and then all of a sudden they’re qualified to actually run something important.”
If you read Marc’s guide to career planning, he mentions five skills that you should have by the time you graduate:
Communication - “I always advise young people to become good public speakers (top 25%). Anyone can do it with practice. If you add that talent to any other, suddenly you’re the boss of the people who have only one skill...
At least one of the skills in your mixture should involve communication, either written or verbal.” - Scott Adams
Management - “Learn how to manage people. Being able to manage will give you a highly valuable tool that you can pull out whenever you need it, instead of forcing you to always be reliant on other people to manage.”
Sales - “Learn how to sell; how to convince people that something is in their best interest to do, even when they don’t realize it up front. Knowing how to sell can also help you recruit, raise money, talk to investors, create business partnerships, deal with reporters and analysts, and more—even, God help you, in your marriage and with your kids.”
Finance - “A strong level of financial literacy—financial theory, understanding financial statements, budgeting and planning, corporate structure, how equity and debt markets work—will be a huge boost for almost any career.”
International - “Time spent on the ground in other countries and in other cultures will pay off in many different ways throughout your career.”
What two or more things are you in the top 25%?
I believe most people can get into the top 25% physically and mentally just by doing three things consistently: eat well, exercise, and read. It’s not complicated, just uncommon.
Professionally, when I asked myself where I stand, I realised I live at the intersection of strategy, team building, and sales. Most people are good at either selling or managing. I’ve spent the last 18 years doing both — consistently beating targets while building and leading teams. I’ve failed plenty, but my wins have outpaced my losses. Targets have been hit. Teams have been built. And some of the people I hired 14 years ago still work with us today. I think that beats any attrition benchmark the industry has.
The entrepreneur in me loves to zoom out to see the full playing field and zoom in to execute. I also have developed a knack for spotting talent others miss, and backing them long before it’s obvious. Time and again, I’ve seen that when the right people are aligned and believe in the mission, we achieve what once felt impossible.
I am sure you have your own peculiar set of skills - the ones that make you a double, triple or quadruple threat. What are they?
2. People will take a chance on you if you prove yourself
“A lot of people took a bet on me. I am the result of so many things going my way and so many people taking a chance on me when they didn’t need to.
I wanted to impress this guy who was a legend. He has more money than God but he had an insane work ethic. He showed up for work everyday. And he had a reputation of not being very nice to people. So I started showing up on weekends and on holidays where he would work as well. After six months I found an error in his code. I was shit scared because he was like a royalty in programming. He looked at it and said “you are right”.
When Cutler took a chance on me, others started thinking “If this guy survived Cutler.. “ a lot of people took bets on me as well.”
3. The most powerful gift you can give someone is making them believe that they are capable
“You are capable - that’s one of the most powerful gifts I have been given. People gave me too much belief in myself.
One of the most powerful things you can give youngsters is make them realize they are capable of much more than they think. You need that belief. I try to pay it forward.”
4. You want to be in the best pond possible
Marc Andreessen was answering the question of which university to attend but his advice applies as much to where you want to work or build. His advice reminded me of my friend Kashyap, who was doing extremely well at a top investment bank in India. At the time he was already operating at the highest levels. So when he told me that he was leaving to pursue an MBA at Chicago Booth, I asked him “why study more when you’re already at the top?” He smiled and said “It’s the network Harsh, not the degree.” Today, he’s doing what he loves in the U.S., on his own terms. That decision changed the trajectory of his life.
Here is what Marc wrote:
“Try very very hard to go to one of the best colleges or universities in the world for your chosen field.
Don’t worry about being a small fish in a big pond—you want to always be in the best pond possible, because that’s how you will get exposed to the best people and the best opportunities in your field.
If you can’t start out in one of the top schools for your field, then work your butt off and get great grades and transfer as fast as you possibly can into a top school.
And if you can’t do that—if you end up getting your undergrad at a school that’s not one of the top in your field—then strongly consider pursuing a graduate degree in your field at a great school for your field.
In this way, even if your only option is starting out at a community college, by the time you finish 4-6 years of education, you can vault yourself into the top tier of your field.”
5. The best work feels like play — and still pays you well
“I like doing this. I’ll keep doing this. I just try to make a great day. And the way I make a great day is when I wake up, I want to take care of my health. I want to read. I want to make a product I’m really proud of. And I want to spend time with people I love and admire.
And I’m going to do that the next day and the next day and the next day. And if I have a great day today and a great day tomorrow and a shitty day a month from now, and If I get a string of great days that will be a great life.
I love the climb. I don’t care where the summit is. I just like the activity for the sake of itself and therefore I’m going to do it. And I hope it’s well received but I couldn’t have predicted that Founders is going to be as successful as it was been.” - David Senra
P.S. I had an incredible conversation with Ankur Singh, one of India’s top 10 most iconic CSOs. You can learn from Ankur’s insights on how he breaks down complexity, the importance of transparency in dealmaking, and why he views work and life as inseparable.
That’s all for this week. See you next Sunday.
👋 I’m Harsh. I build with people I like and collect useful ideas to win at business and life.
Here’s where I spend most of my time:
iDeals Virtual Data Rooms – helping IB, PE & Corp Dev close deals faster
M&A Community – where dealmakers connect, learn and grow
Happy Ratio – loaded wraps that make healthy eating delicious
Marcellus Investment Managers – compounding wealth the right way
Zero1 by Zerodha – a curated network of high quality storytellers that build what this generation needs and not what it needs to be sold.
Harsh Batra (Connect with me on LinkedIn)