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- i just turned down a life changing opportunity
I was doing outreach for my email marketing agency a couple of weeks ago, and called a business owner in my network.
Gave him my pitch, “I can help you get more leads with email marketing…” etc.
Him: “Yeah, that sounds good. We can get started on that. But there’s something else you are uniquely suited to help me with…”
He then proceeded to tell me about this project that he is getting venture capital funding for, and needs my engineering help.
At first this sounded amazing!
Early team at a startup, doing some pretty cool work with cool people.
But the more I thought about it, the more the excitement started to fizzle.
It was a classic example of the Curse of Competence.
Allow Jim Collins to explain what this is:
Most of us suffer from the curse of competence… which means that there are things you can be good at because you have an abundance of talent. But that doesn’t mean that it’s in the small subset of things that you are genetically programmed to potentially be truly excellent at.
See, I’m really good at being an engineer in a very specific niche. But I don’t think that I’m genetically encoded to be an engineer. It’s just a skill that I’ve spent enough time honing to gain proficiency.
Through years of introspection and trial/error, I believe that my calling is writing.
I’m nowhere near the level of proficiency with writing as I am with engineering. But, I will get there.
But only by putting constraints on my time. Narrow constraints = narrow choices.
I won’t become an amazing writer if I accept every cool engineering opportunity that comes down the pike.
I used to think that having many paths and options was a good thing. Now, I realize it’s not liberating, it’s confining. Many paths feel like freedom, but it can also cause you to be scared, confused and frozen in place.
This is an extra special type of tragedy, a tragedy that unfolds while everyone cheers.
Like being on the Titanic after the iceberg, water up to your chin, with everybody telling you that you’re so lucky to be on the greatest steamship of all time.
And the Titanic is indeed so huge and wonderful that you can’t help but agree, but you’re also feeling a bit cold and wet at the moment, and you’re not sure why.
To be a truly great writer and build a life around something I truly love, not something I’m merely good at, I have to start implementing constraints.
So, I’m officially in the season of saying “No.”
You should join me.
It feels like freedom.
Swanagan
P.S., if you are getting good vibes from these emails, send it to 5 friends and I’ll send you a sick t-shirt.