Ways to distinguish yourself – #79 Gather the right puzzle pieces

By Rajesh Setty on Wed 14 Dec 2005, 6:00 AM – Leave Comment

Imagine that you have a set of lego blocks – let’s say about 60 of

them. What we can do with these blocks depends on our creativity, skill

level, amount of time we are willing to commit and so on. Some people

may create a small object and others might build something big. Each

person can create something of their own.

Now, let’s say we decide to add a few more puzzle pieces to this mix.

You look around but don’t find any more lego blocks. You look some more

and you find some jigsaw puzzle pieces. You decide that something is

better than nothing and add about 20 jigsaw puzzle pieces to the mix.

Now rather than 60, you have 80 puzzle pieces.

The challenge now is to try and build something from the 60 lego blocks

and 20 jigsaw puzzle pieces. Nothing good comes out of this but you

don’t want to give up. You keep trying and want to badly make it work.

You read up some creativity and innovation stuff, talk to some experts

and try again. No luck. You give up after some time.

Your friend on the other hand had same number of lego blocks but

instead of adding jigsaw puzzle pieces, he waits and collects more

money and buys a few more lego blocks. While you are fiddling with this

combo, he creates a masterpiece.

Moral of the story: You need to gather the right puzzle pieces to get ahead.

We can draw several analogies. The lego blocks are like your current

skills and resources – all the assets that you have. You can configure

these resources in variety of fashions to create something out of your

life. When you decide add some skillsets or new resources, you need to

ensure that the newer configurations can create something bigger. If

you don’t think through and blindly add some skills or resources to the

mix without thinking through the configuration, you will break your

back but nothing good comes out of it.

Good luck!

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