“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.”
— Warren Buffett
How do you select the opportunities you pursue? In our achievement-oriented culture, we’re often drawn to dramatic challenges—the high-stakes project, the impossible deadline, the difficult relationship. What if rather than strictly attempting heroic feats that might fail spectacularly, we incorporate opportunities where success is highly probable. Mixing it up could transform how we think about career development, skill building, and relationship management.
This isn’t about avoiding challenge; it’s about being strategic about which challenges to pursue and consistently leveraging your natural advantages and interests.
Consider your professional relationships. Instead of trying to connect with everyone, you could focus on building deeper relationships with people who naturally align with your values and interests. Rather than engage in only formal networking, you could seek natural opportunities where authentic connections can develop. Instead of trying to change your communication style completely, make small adjustments that improve your effectiveness.
This principle also applies to skill development. Rather than attempting to fix every weakness, focus on strengthening your natural talents to the point where they become competitive advantages. If you’re naturally analytical, become exceptionally analytical. If you’re naturally empathetic, develop that into a leadership superpower.
Of course, this approach requires self-awareness and patience. You must understand your strengths, recognize favorable conditions, and wait for the right opportunities. This can be challenging in a culture that celebrates dramatic transformations and heroic efforts.
But the results speak for themselves. People who focus on their advantages build sustainable success more reliably than those who constantly fight their natural tendencies. They build stronger professional relationships because they’re operating from positions of strength and confidence.
Where do you have natural advantages that you could develop further? Success often comes not from jumping higher, but from choosing the right bars to step over.
Happy Networking!
The initial takeaway I’m getting is not only that finding the 1-foot bars to clear amplifies the likelihood of consistent success, but also that the practice of clearing those lower bars trains you for clearing higher and higher bars.
I’m mixing metaphors here – sort of fusing compound interest as it applies to personal affect with the post’s premise of strategic linear stacking of smaller wins to achieve larger goals (an oversimplification of the post to be sure, but I hope a decent summarization). It seems to me that Warren Buffett was able to clear those metaphorical 7-foot bars in the end; and that he was able to do it not only because he picked his spots so well along the way, but also because the practice of clearing those lower bars trained him well for finding and clearing 2-, 3-, and on up to the 7-footers when those opportunities came.
I may not be ready to clear 7 feet, but I’m certainly ready to clear 1-footers in my areas of strength; and if I get enough of those in the rear view then I’ll be better prepared for the 2’s and 3’s. From there it’s a whole lot of work and a little bit of luck, and we’ll just see where it all leads. Time to go find the right bars to clear!
You nailed it, Wes! Exactly right.