Inform Yourself

My good friend Jay Niblick , founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

This is the second part regarding the why success is so rare.

Instead of trying to be good at lots of things, pick something that you love and are very good at and figure out how to become even more specialized in that area, and how to make a living at it.

“I don’t know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone”
Bill Cosby

The diagram below illustrates the concept of increasing performance by decreasing scope. Notice how the more specialized you become, the greater your chances of success are. I need to point out that this is not the result of any empirical study, but something very noticeable as a trend in those we’ve worked with.

Levels of Performance Scope/Specialization
_ Level 1 - Below Average/Poor (very broad, no specialization)
_ Level 2 - Average
_ Level 3 - Above Average/Good
_ Level 4 - Excellent
_ Level 5 – Genius (very focused and specialized)

The higher the level of performance rises, the narrower the scope or specialization becomes. Meaning: reaching the 5th Level of performance means becoming as specialized as you can.

When Marshall Goldsmith set out to establish his professional niche, he wanted to be the world expert in one very specific area, so he chose a very small focus that added exclusivity to what he did (i.e., coaching successful executives, typically in the Fortune 500, to be even better). By doing so not only did he reduce his competition but more importantly his specialization allowed him to occupy a space (role) that depended almost exclusively on his talents.

Your task in becoming more authentic is to prune your role to become more exclusive, more rare - more specialized. In so doing, at the same time you prune your dependence on non-talents and leave your success dependent only on that which you naturally do very well. You in effect create a strengths-based reality.

To help you determine how you can become more specialized, list your industry below and any sub-categories that exist in that industry. If you can’t think of any that’s great because here is your chance to create some. If you get stuck here’s some tips. Look at others to see how they have managed to specialize in their own niche:

Who in your industry is considered an expert?

Who do you know that specializes in anything?

What is one area of your industry that is very complicated or in high demand?

If you can’t think of anything within your industry, could you become a consultant to that industry, thus creating a specialization in the consulting industry?

My Industry:

Industry Sub-Categories (areas within that Industry that could be considered a specialty):

Based on what you have learned from your Genius Profile, which of the Subcategories above could you specialize in? Which parts of your industry do you find more enjoyable, exciting, interesting and in which parts have you found that you are just plain “better”?

My good friend Jay Niblick , founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

One thing he found common among the geniuses he interviewed was their concept of rarity. There is a large body of work out there supporting the argument that the more specialized you become, the more your chances of success increase. Specialization isn’t a new idea. Over two thousand and five hundred years ago Confucius saw the folly in trying to be too many things when he said, “The person who chases two rabbits catches neither.” Specializing in a niche area is one key to being very successful.

We’ve all heard the old mantra, “you can’t be all things to all people.” My work has proven to me that there is a direct but inverse correlation between the levels of performance one achieves and the scope or degree of specialization they have. Lower to middle levels of performance tend to correlate with broader scopes of practice whereas the higher levels correlate with higher degrees of specialization. In other words, the more you try to be, the less you will achieve.

The geniuses we've worked with are anything but generalists. They all specialize in a very fine area of expertise. Think about some of the professionals you know for a moment, like doctors, lawyers, scientists or coaches. In the medical community we see a clear association between “the best” and the degree of specialization. Medical professionals have created some of the most specialized levels of practice in any industry. The orthopedic community, a specialization in and of itself already, has developed specialists (experts) in the hand, sports medicine, spine, upper extremities and lower extremities, even those who specialize in just elbows. In law, already a specialization, you see a field that has fractured into narrower and narrower levels of specialization with tax lawyers, trial lawyers, defense attorneys, certain kinds of medical malpractice attorneys who focus on only certain kinds of medicine (to keep up with the hyper-specialization in the medical community perhaps). Look at Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking, both genius physicists, but a specialized kind of physics - theoretical physics (as if physics wasn’t already specialized enough).

Randy Haykin is a great example of a guy who understands the role that rarity plays in being successful. “I’ve always believed in thinking outside the box, thinking in ways that others simply are not, and playing where few others are playing. I like taking the rare perspective on things,” says Randy. As founding Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Yahoo! Inc. in the early 1990’s, Randy brought this appreciation for rarity with him from Apple. Randy summarizes his approach by saying, “I wanted us to be the biggest fattest fish we could be - in the smallest pond we could find.”

Anthony Robbins captures the same kind of thoughts on rarity when he talks about success. “One of the reasons I think a lot of people fail to achieve what they truly want is that they never direct their focus; they never decide to master anything in particular. In fact, I think most people fail in life simply because they major in minor things,” says Robbins. The person who tries to do everything, be everything, usually accomplishes nothing.

The more specialized you get, the more niche a market you create or serve, the greater the likelihood that you will reach the 5th level of performance will be. Why? It’s simple really. Aside from the fact that in almost every single category of life or business, specialists significantly out earn generalists at every turn, the bigger problem is that trying to be all things to all people fails to focus all of your genius in one targeted area. Like the light of the sun focused through a magnifying glass, the more diffuse the focus, the less power it has. The more focused that beam of light is, however, the stronger it is.

If, as a child, you’ve ever lit a leaf on fire on a hot summer day you understand what we're talking about. Spreading yourself too thin is basically futile. It doesn’t work, at least not very well. He who is a jack-of-all-trades is a master of none, and 5th level performance requires mastery. If we remember that the key to becoming truly authentic is to reduce your success’ dependence on non-talents, then by reducing the variables in that success you make this task easier. If you are attempting to be a genius at lots of different things, you will surely have a hard time of it. You might become adequate at many things, but not an expert at any of them. Even those who have talents in all areas or classes of talent, the rarest of patterns by the way, have non-talents. Everyone has talents and everyone has non-talents.

My good friend Jay Niblick, founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

The Quiet Path
With human nature being what it is, and the legacy of dependence being as prevalent as it is, people continue to struggle to know themselves and many times they sell themselves on what they think they should be, or what others tell them to be, or what the job says they need to be. This kind of path is what Jay calls a loud path. So many voices, so much pressure to go here, do this, or be this. Jay calls this the loud path because so many voices are telling you to follow it. The noise can become overwhelming and hard to ignore, and even prevent you from hearing any other voices telling you anything different. As well intentioned as most of this advice may be, the fact remains that the loud path is made up of other’s voices, and other’s opinions - not your own.

These voices know less about who you really are and what your real talents are for, and the path they champion is more often than not less authentic as a result. It is the path championed by your inner voices that is the wisest one for you to follow. Those voices are most familiar with who you are and in turn they are the ones that really know best which path you should take. Relative to the cacophony of voices that make up the loud path, your truest path is indeed very quiet, so Jay calls it the quiet path.

Ancient Chinese texts refer to the Tao (pronounced “dow”), which literally means “way” or “path”. In Taoist writings this term has a very comprehensive meaning, referring to a metaphysical principle that underlies all being; a vast Oneness that precedes the endlessly divers forms of the world. Ultimately, the Tao lies beyond the power of language to describe, but unknowable as it may be, you can still learn to sense its presence and movement in order to bring your own life and movement into harmony with it.

An important part of unleashing your inner genius by following your quite path is self-awareness. While it may not be possible to consciously and completely know all that is you, your true path exists beyond your conscious mind, so while you may not be able to grasp it, you can definitely sense it. Following your quite path means trusting the sense you feel, your gut, because your true way (Tao) is there – just very subtle or quiet. I think author Henry David Thoreau sums up the thoughts on listening to your inner-voice very well when he says, “We are constantly invited to be who we are. So accept these invitations instead of rejecting them.” Because of its relative quietness, compared to the noisy voices of the loud path, few people hear or follow it. As poet Robert Frost said, “Two roads diverged into a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by. And that made all the difference.” Learning to hear your inner voices, and to follow your quiet path, will make all the difference between your reaching your 5th level of performance or not.

While the quiet path can be hard to perceive, my five-year-old son Joseph provided me with a great example of something that is just as present but difficult to see. Light rays are something that is always there, but often difficult to actually see. We see the effects of their presence as they light our world, but perceiving the actual rays of light themselves can be very difficult. If you’ve ever seen rays of light streaming from behind a cloud, or shooting through a window into a dark room, you get the idea. But Joe gave me an example one night that I like best of all.

My good friend Jay Niblick, founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

There is an old cliché in real estate that the three most things in real estate are: location, location, and location. This is also very true in the world of individual performance and success. My use of location in this sense represents where you are standing in the future, what your roles will be, what your job duties are. If all of us have talents, why aren’t we all equally as successful? Granted there are lots of contributing factors as to why one person may be more successful than another, but one major reason we see such diversity in performance is where we live (and I don’t mean our street address). Everyone may indeed have talents, but unfortunately not everyone does as good a job of positioning themselves in a location (i.e., job or role) that is a great match for their talents. Many people occupy locations where their success depends on their non-talents more than their talents. The geniuses among us do a great job of knowing what they are good at and not good at, then finding or creating a locating for themselves (roles, jobs, etc.) that accentuate their strengths and minimize any weaknesses. A good location is one that allows you to depend as much as possible on their talents, and as little as possible on their non-talents. Geniuses occupy locations that allow them to be authentic, that allow them to be more successful.

There are a lot of analogies that demonstrate the significance of location. Imagine you were a dune buggy. Your natural strengths would be for racing in the desert, over rough terrain, in horrible conditions that required very high body clearance, an insane amount of suspension, lots of raw power and huge tires that get good traction in the soft sand. These are your talents as a dune buggy. Now, would it make any sense at all to take that dune buggy and enter it in a NASCAR or Formula One race? It would seem obvious to us that attempting to race a dune buggy in a formula one race wouldn’t make any sense because the differences between the strengths of the dune buggy and the strengths required by the location (i.e., the tight, winding city streets some old European town) are so blatant. Athletes are another good analogy for the importance of location.

Take Peyton Manning or Michael Jordan and switch their location. How well would Peyton Manning, a star NFL Quarterback, perform as a Kicker or offensive lineman? How well did Michael Jordan actually perform as a professional baseball player? When it comes to finding the right location for our natural talents, the non-physical ones, the matter of fit is just as important.

The problem is, our thinking talents are not as obvious or observable as are our physical talents. Failing to find the right location in which to apply your potential, however, has the same kind of negative impact. How much of a genius would Albert Einstein have been as a marriage counselor? Would Oprah make a brilliant administrative assistant? Would the world remember Patton the artist, or Van Gogh the military commander? In the wrong location, all of these geniuses would have never been considered the best at what they do. These examples may seem obvious and silly to you, but due to the legacy of dependence many people suffer from, many still believe it is the company, or others, who are better suited for determining their best location. As Peter Drucker, the elder statesman of management wisdom, says,” even today, remarkably few Americans are prepared to select jobs [location] for themselves.”

You are the best one to determine your best location. You are the only one who can hear those voices in your head and understand your own best path. Unfortunately, our natural talents are much less obvious then our physical talents, therefore many times the best location is not as obvious to us. We don’t realize we are a dune buggy, or that we are the only dune buggy in the race. As a result we attempt to modify the dune buggy with a new suspension, different tires, and other “developmental” efforts to try and make it fit the location better. As silly as this would be for the physical world of a racecar, that’s what people all over the world do when they find themselves in the wrong race. They fail to see the incompatibility between themselves and the race they are competing in and they spend a great majority of their time trying to change themselves to fit their role better – all the meanwhile the race goes on while they are stuck in the pits trying to modify their racecar. Understanding your natural talents better, and then understanding which roles you fill and how you fill them is the key to reaching the 5th level of performance. Geniuses do a great job of finding roles and setting goals where their talents are optimally aligned with the demands of the environment. In a way, Geniuses are expert real estate agents.

My good friend Jay Niblick, founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

~ You can’t control what talents you possess but you definitely can control what you do with them ~

Geniuses are two things: self-aware and authentic. Now that you have met your genius – again – and have become more self-aware, you have the first part of the puzzle. The next few posts will show you how to take that awareness and become authentic to it.

Three Parts of Authenticity
There are three parts to choosing your authentic self, or choosing how you will become authentic. First, you must have a clear strategic vision for where you want to go (your Point B on your life map). This requires creating a vision, and goals, for where you want to go that are authentic (i.e., based on your natural talents). Second, you must know what to do in the present, on a daily basis level, to reach those future goals. Third, you have to believe in yourself and that you not only deserve to reach these goals, but that you can. These three aspects of becoming authentic are formally known as:

• Self-Direction: your clarity for the future authentic self you will become. This is your point B on your life map and it is comprised of the authentic goals that you set for yourself.

• “Roal” Awareness: your clarity for understanding how to merge your authentic future goals with your real-life roles (goals + roles = Roals by the way)

• Self-Belief: your level of belief in yourself at this point in your life

Part 1: Self-Direction
“One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don't know’, Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn't matter.” When Lewis Carroll wrote these lines in his book Alice in Wonderland, he may not have realized how poignant they were when it comes to becoming a genius, but before you can get somewhere, you have to know where that somewhere is. Everything that is created is created twice; first in the mind, then in reality. Not knowing where they want to go - in your mind - is one of the most common problems I see with my clients. If you don’t know where you are going (what your concept is, who you are to become), how will you get there or even know when you have arrived?

Creating a clear picture of where you want to go is vital to reaching the 5th level of performance. Without this guide it is easy to get lost, just as easy as getting lost in the wilderness without a map, compass or GPS. Just like the racecar driver needs to know the race course in order to maximize every ounce of energy and second of time, so too do you need to be completely aware of where you want to go. Your natural talents may be the Ferrari, but your understanding for how to use those talents is like the racecar driver.

When the driver doesn’t know the course well, he goes too slowly around one corner and too fast around others - because he isn’t sure exactly where it goes. He slows down as he approaches a hill because he isn’t quite sure what lies on the other side. Lack of clarity for your direction in life is one of the most crippling issues people who are inauthentic suffer.

Not having a clear self-direction in life has a very negative impact on your ability to perform at peak levels. When you don’t have a clear understanding in your own head of where you want to go you are leaving some portion of your potential talent as just that - potential.

The main questions you must answer for yourself, which this chapter will help you do, are:
• What does your future self look like?
• How authentic is that future vision or image?
• What specific talents will your success depend on and what non-talents will you not depend on?
• What will your future roles look like (location)?