Good morning,
Every once in a while – about once a week, by my count – my counterpart here at True On Average wastes everyone's time with a blubbering collection of sheer nonsense. He labels these excretions with official-sounding designations like ‘proper’ or ‘review’ to lend them false credibility. I mean, a 'life changing book'… get a life, I say, before telling us about how it changed.
Luckily, I am here to clear up the confusion caused by his uncommitted generality. My loyal readers deserve to know how to apply the basic principles behind some of those ideas. Let's consider his recent post – uncited, mind – that describes a rule of thumb he came up with after reading about how Bobby Fisher trained for chess matches.
According to TOA, Fisher’s fitness routine demonstrated some kind of 'ying-yang' balancing act of cultivating strengths and shoring up weaknesses. I also read the book so I know his conclusion is rubbish. Fisher trained his body because he was a winner (a topic I have forgotten more about than TOA will ever understand). Fisher was a true competitor and, as real competitors know, the difference between winners (The Business Bro) and losers (True On Average) comes down to the finest margins (1). A competitor in such a situation does every little thing possible to gain the narrowest but possibly decisive edge.
I understand Fisher’s approach and have found ways to apply it to my own career. It hasn’t been simple. However, we BBs do have one big thing in common with the grandmaster – our jobs emphasize mental capabilities over physical ones. This is with good reason. The ability to complete a job is unrelated to my looks (dashing), height (ideal) or foot speed (4.15 seconds in the 40-yard dash give or take a few seconds) (2). However, nothing excuses me from doing all that is possible to maximize my performance. I bet most of my colleagues would perform better on the job if they whipped their bodies into something resembling peak condition.
The first big lesson I learned out of college was the advantage my fitness gave me in the workplace. It happened sort of in a backwards way – I didn’t help me so much as it prevented me from inadvertently harming myself in the way my colleagues did. During flu season, for example, I looked at the empty desks of ill colleagues and wondered what would happen to my unused sick time. After lunchtime, I regularly witnessed my colleagues who ate unhealthy meals mentally crash as the aftereffects of their food set in. And anyone who sat with poor posture required frequent breaks to stand, stretch, or go to doctor’s appointments.
I, on the other hand, was never sick. Lunchtime vegetables mostly powered my afternoons and I could always be found standing with excellent posture at my self-constructed upright desk. I got more out of each day than most of my colleagues simply because my fitness and nutrition routines meant my body never prevented me from working. Being even five percent more productive each day adds up quickly, especially in workplaces where learning is cumulative.
Undoubtedly, I consider the role of my fitness in my career development to have been invaluable. However, I do not recommend some silly rule of thumb about ‘plateau this’ and ‘upward progress’ that. Do you really think Bobby Fisher became a grandmaster worrying about these rules of thumb things? No way – like anyone truly successful, Fisher identified everything in his control that would help him play better chess and then he did every one of those things. It has nothing to do with balancing strengths and weaknesses – rather, it demands harnessing competitive drive to do everything it takes to get better, day after day, until you are finally in a position to win.
Until next time,
The Business Bro
Footnotes / hypotheticals / the editor is HR, I guess
1. What if… I have no weaknesses?
Now, I should add here, mortal reader – I do not have weaknesses and thus only work on my strengths, which is everything. TOA is more of a wishy-washy sort who views life as a constant balancing act, worrying that if one side of the see-saw goes up, the other must go down. I recommend doing as I do - stop complaining about such nonsense and simply lift the see-saw straight over your head.
2. Editor’s note…
A reminder, reader – focusing on such metrics like looks, height, or foot speed while discussing job performance is spelled D-I-S-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N and D-I-S-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-T-I-O-N is a serious legal matter.
There is simply no place in any organization for the overzealous business bro who cannot separate appearance from ability. These bigots… (Business Bigots?...) should regularly update their resumes in preparation for their imminent dismissal (and perhaps befriend a lawyer or two to help with projected legal issues).
