One of the best parts of the GiveGetWin Tour is getting to travel and speak alongside brilliant people.
Driving from Phoenix to Austin yesterday, Kai Zau and I got into a really interesting conversation about maximizing.
Y'know, maximizing opportunities. Maximizing results.
Not everyone maximizes -- many people look to just get by, or get some basic criteria met.
But we noticed that, while we're both maximizers, we often maximize in different ways.
One way to maximize would be to increase luck surface area, get exposure to opportunities and resources, and then claim resources when they come your way. This is an opportunistic sort of maximizing -- exposing yourself to inputs, and taking the best bets as they come at you.
The other kind is along the lines of "dynamite the wall" maximization. This would be starting with a plan you want to make happen and using force of will and creativity to create opportunities where there are none.
Most of the famous stories you hear about maximizing entrepreneurs -- Richard Branson, Howard Hughes, Ted Turner -- you hear their dynamite-the-wall maximization stories. Making a deal happen where no deal should have been possible. Breaking new markets open with daring movies. These things, they make for great stories.
But maximizing via increasing your surface area and then taking surefire bets? It looks a bit less exciting to external observers, but it's lower variance and leads to consistent success and trending upwards.
You should be increasing your luck surface area regardless -- it's the focus of one of Kai's excellent talks. But then there's a choice to be made, about whether you'll have specific plans you look to will into existence, or whether you'll wait for opportunities to unfold that you seeded long before. Both approaches can work; it's interesting to think about, no?