Double Down
- Scott A Gibbs
- Jul 15, 2016
- 1 min read
I’ve been involved in many conversations at the community level discussing the topic of how to spark private investment and economic growth. There are two typical outcomes from these conversations. First, communities adopt the same strategies that are being adopted by other communities. In other words, they don’t understand the value of differentiating themselves and as a result, die in a sea of sameness. Second, they spread their limited capital resources over too many initiatives. Consequently, progress is invisible to the very customers they are trying to woo.
I was recently listening to a video from Gary Vaynerchuk during which he made the observation that so many people fail to focus on what they’re good at. I realized that people are very similar to communities. We are prone to haphazardly grab at a myriad of self-help, personal improvement programs to fix what we’re weak at. In the end, we are no better off than when we started our journey. Frustrated and disillusioned, we fade into a sea of sameness. We also fail to achieve leverage from limited financial and time resources. In other words, we can’t gain any traction.
Like communities, I need to understand what makes me unique. What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? I need to find the thing that answers both of these questions and then double down, go all in. I need to be highly strategic with how I spend my limited financial and time resources. That means making choices, saying no, and proudly living and growing with my decisions. It’s a bet I’m am more than willing to make.
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