The Funnel

During lunch recently we overheard a grandfather ask his grandson what he wanted to be when he grew up.  The young boy responded with youthful enthusiasm and said that he was unsure exactly but thought anything was possible as long as he had a strong desire and worked hard.  His grandfather's response was, unfortunately, very typical.  He told his grandson that no matter how bad the young boy wanted something, he could never achieve greatness like Albert Einstein, Derek Jeter or Roger Federer.

The grandfather's point was that some people are born with superior ability that puts them into a class of their own.  No matter how badly the ranked number ten or number 50 person wants to be number 1, they will not be able to achieve it.  He argued that all of those second-place athletes (or thinkers, or businessmen) want to be at the top of their peer group, but nature has placed limits on them.  This means that unless you are number one, your only hope is for limited achievement.  MEAPA believes otherwise.

We believe that hope is the foundation on which purposeful living is built, and living on purpose is critical to creating opportunities and achieving dreams.  Where there is no hope there are no opportunities.  

Three books raise interesting points to consider in this line of thinking.  Malcolm Gladwell made an argument in Outliers: The Story of Success about how individuals who mastered a skill achieved that mastery that put them at the top of their field.  One aspect of his argument is the observation that such people spent 10,000 hours working at their specialty in order to arrive at the top.  These were not overnight successes or people who merely exploited natural talent.  Rather, they spent years focused on perfecting one thing. 

Geoff Colvin's Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else further supports Gladwell's point and states two very important conclusions.  First, "everyone who has achieved exceptional performance has encountered terrible difficulties along the way.  There are no exceptions."  And second, and perhaps most important is Colvin's conclusion "what the evidence shouts most loudly is striking, liberating news that great performance is not reserved for a preordained few.  It is available to you and to everyone"

In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink outlines the 3 laws of mastery, first of which is a mindset that motivates people.  He notes the work of Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck who says what people believe shapes what people achieve.  Some believe they can become anything, even the best in their field.  Others do not (and they follow-up with that by not achieving it).  The other 2 laws of mastery that Pink talks about are sheer grit and determination, and the idea that mastery always eludes us.  Some give up due to that elusion, others pursue relentlessly.

Think of life as a funnel.  You start at the wide end of the funnel, which represents opportunity.  You have a tremendous amount of opportunity because you have a lot of time to achieve mastery supported by sufficient energy.  Your motivation is the kick-start to send you down the path of your choosing.  Then you move down the funnel and it gets narrower as you make choices such as the type of education to pursue, the career to follow, the person you will marry, the various interests that will absorb your resources. 

As time goes on, your opportunities narrow just as the funnel narrows.  By the time you are a grandpa, perhaps you feel like there is very little opportunity in the world and you share that toxic view with 12-year old children whose world-view is very different.  At the narrow end of the funnel you snuff out hope.

Regardless of your age, life can be lived at either end of the funnel.  When you live with purpose – setting goals, knowing yourself and relying on traits and habits that help you achieve goals while making adjustments to traits and habits that inhibit your goals, pursuing your passion, and consciously thinking about the implications of your actions – you are moving to the wide end of the funnel. 

New opportunities will open and limitations can be overcome.  Will that make you number 1 in your field?  If that is your desire, it just might.  Or you might create an entirely new field and become number 1 in it.  Or better yet, you might create an entire new field and open the doors for thousands of others to join you in a set of opportunities that never existed before.  You can start this process when you are 12, or you can start this when you are 80.  It is up to you.