As I mentioned in my last blog post, “Could It Always Be Worse? Probably, Yes. That’s Good.” I recently started listening regularly to Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. I also recently started regularly listening to The Axe Files with David Axelrod.
Axelrod, for those of you who may not know, is a political consultant who’s most famous for being the key strategist in Barack Obama’s two campaigns for the presidency. Judging by results, he did a pretty good job.
Nerd Out
I’ve never met Axelrod. But from what I’ve read about him over the years, and now from listening to about 20 podcast episodes, I think we share some things in common. Among them are that I think we’re both pretty hardcore nerds (I know I am. I’m surmising about Axelrod, and use the moniker with the greatest respect). And we both like talking and listening to interesting people.
Axelrod’s podcast mostly features interviews — always interesting — of politicians or people who’ve served in government. But occasionally Axelrod interviews someone outside the area of politics and government.
Baseball been berry, berry good to him!
I just finished listening to an episode in which Axelrod interviews Theo Epstein, President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs. While I knew the basics about Epstein — that he’s a baseball stats guy, that he became the youngest general manager in Major League Baseball history when the Boston Red Sox elevated him to the position, that in 2004 he brought the first (and later another) Word Series title to Beantown in 86 years, that in 2016 he brought the first (and later another) Word Series title to Chicago in 108 years, and that he’s a pretty universally respected guy — I didn’t know much more. But I learned a lot about Epstein in this episode and came away with a great deal more respect for Epstein than I had going in.
Turns out that Epstein is a hardcore, longtime, and 100% legit baseball guy. His reputation for being a good, smart, and savvy guy seems very richly deserved.
What’s this got to do with personal finance you ask, Dear Reader? Well, hold on. Hold on. I’m getting to it.
Jack of all trades, to open
Maybe you’ve heard of the 80-20 rule (aka, the Pareto Principle), which holds that 80% of outcomes/outputs result from 20% of all causes/inputs for any given event. Applied to business, the rule dictates that one should identify and prioritize the 20% most productive inputs, because those likely produce 80% of the positive outputs.
Makes sense.
Epstein, in the podcast, states what I’ll call a corollary of the rule, which I think if followed has the potential to produce equally rich financial rewards.
Epstein started out his MLB baseball career in the San Diego Pardres’ front office. Compared to big market teams like the Red Sox and Cubs, the Padres’ front office staff wasn’t well staffed or funded. So Epstein had/got the chance to learn and do a lot of different things he might not otherwise have been able to learn/do in a big operation.
Asked by Axelrod about that experience, Epstein agreed that it was invaluable and adds (here’s the corollary, Dear Reader!): “What I always tell kids when they’re first starting out in baseball is, you know, whoever your boss is or your bosses are that they have 20% of their job that they just don’t like, and so if you can ask them or figure out what that 20% is, and figure out a way to do it for them, you’ll both make them really happy and improve their quality of life and their work experience, and also gain, you know, invaluable experience for yourself. And if you do a good job with it they’ll start to give you more and more responsibility. And that’s really what happened with me at the Padres.”
I think I may have heard something like this before. But, regardless, it’s spot on.
Just do it
Whether you’re an employee or a business owner doing work for customers/clients, finding and doing that 20% of what your boss dislikes doing or your customers/clients can’t/won’t do for themselves related to the goods/services you offer, seems to me a surefire way to make the people you’re doing the work for happy.
If the some or all of 20% also is work that you (or everyone) dislike doing, well, that kinda sucks. But it probably is still worth doing for a few reasons.
First, just because you don’t like the work doesn’t mean the person you’re doing it for will appreciate it any less. In fact if they know the work is blecccchhhh and/or that you, too, don’t like doing it, they may appreciate your efforts all the more. So long as the work isn’t (too) menial and you don’t allow yourself to get pigeonholed into being “the guy/gal who just does that work,” you’re likely to not just earn brownie points, but to be seen as less easily replaceable than others. That ain’t worth nothing.
Second, doing the work may allow you to develop expertise in an area that few others want/are willing to do and/or to develop skills and hacks that make the job both easier, more efficient, and less unenjoyable (and maybe even outright enjoyable). This can lead to monetary rewards, and/or promotions, and/or new responsibilities that come with more remuneration.
And third, if everyone knows the work sucks, but you do it willingly and well, you’re likely to earn praise from the person you’re doing it for and from other muckety mucks. Those folks may very well have control of purse strings that can be loosened to your benefit to pay you for your efforts.
As I explained in by blog posts “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Part One)” and “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Part Two),” there are lots of ways to succeed in your job by means not necessarily part of conventional wisdom. Theo’s 80/20 Rule corollary fits quite nicely into this thinking.
Dear Reader, notwithstanding that I’m a Epstein-admirer and that he did bring a Word Series title to the North Side of Chicago, I have never been and never will be a Cubs fan. So allow me to show you some highlights in franchise history that brought a smile to my face.
