THE DAIRY OF A CEO- Law 1 starts with the narration of a story.
Author's friend David, was sitting in the porch of his house, enjoying his morning coffee. That's when a confused looking middle-aged man, all sweaty in his gym attire jogged lethargically towards him.
He took a pause in front of David's house, to catch his breath. He greeted David in his panting voice and mumbled an unclear joke, then laughed at it himself. The strange man then started to talk about the spaceship he was building, the microchip he was going to integrate in monkey's brains, and the AI-powered house robots he will create.
A few moments later, the uncanny man bid David farewell and continued his sluggish jog down the street.
The jogger... was none other than Elon Musk. Billionaire founder of Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, OpenAI, PayPal, Zip2 along with others!
Before the stranger’s identity was revealed to you, your default thought must have lead you to believe that he is a psychologically disbalanced person. Unsurprisingly, when his identity was unveiled, that's when all that ‘gibberish’ became so believable!
Why is it, what seemed bizarre a minute ago is now so convincing?
It is because successful people such as Elon Musk himself, have filled their share of 5 buckets!
No, I don’t mean real physical buckets, rather these are 5 metaphorical buckets.
Basically, consider these 5 buckets as 5 different areas of your life, and filling these areas means how complete you are in each one of them.
“When you're seeking employment, selecting the next book you want to read or deciding what dream to pursue, you must be aware of how full your buckets are.”
The five buckets are as follows:
1) What you know (You knowledge)
2) What you can do (Your skill)
3) Who you know (Your network)
4) What you have (Your resources)
5) What the world thinks of you (Your reputation)
The fullness of these buckets will determine how B.B.A (BIG, BELIEVABLE, ACHIEVABLE) your dreams are to you and to the ones that hear them. These buckets are interrelated, and it is very crucial that we keep in mind to fill them in order, from left to right.
Why? Let's understand this with a story.
Steve and Martin are two very talented software engineers. Steve gets a job in a Multi-National Corporation (MNC), starting as a junior software developer, enhancing his knowledge and skills.
Martin however, gets an offer from a blooming startup to head the company as the CEO. He will get paid almost twice or even thrice than what Steve will.
Any layman will put Martin on a pedestal- once in a blue moon opportunity, a silver yarn in a stack of black ones. But hold that thought.
Steve is intensely focusing on the first two buckets, gaining knowledge and converting it into applied skill (Bucket 1 & 2). Martin on the other hand has completely skipped the first two buckets and jumped directly for, more resources (Money: Bucket 4), and reputation (Bucket 5).
Further down the road, about 7 months later, Martin's ship has sunk inexorably deep, while Steve is touching the unimaginable heights of success. Martin's lack of management knowledge resulted in extensive disaster for the company, the profits are down to 0, all the key employees have left and the startup is in a debt!
On the contrary, "knowledge when applied (Skill), is power". As Steve fills and expands his bucket of Knowledge and Skill, the number of important people he knows (network) expands. As a result, his resources witness a gradual spike and his reputation too, is top notch!
From this we conclude that the "first bucket (Knowledge is the highest-yielding investment you can make)".
A job which gives you Knowledge and Skills is the best long term investment you can make for a fruitful career. Ironically, a higher paying job which doesn't give you knowledge and applicable skills, is actually a lower paying one.
"We usually start our professional life acquiring knowledge (school, university, etc.), and when this knowledge is applied, we call it a skill. When you have knowledge and skills you become professionally valuable to others and your network grows. Consequently, when you have the knowledge, skills and a network, your access to resources expands, and once you have knowledge, skills, a valuable network and resources, you will undoubtedly earn a reputation." - Law 1, pg. 11
In reality, even after knowing this truth, most of us will still hesitate to choose knowledge and skill over money. It is our ego which sits as an obstacle in our way and convinces us to hop over the first two buckets!
But your ego won't protect you from A professional Earthquake.
In the book, a professional earthquake is defined as anything unpredictable which adversely impacts your career- technological innovation, being fired by your employer etc.
In the face of these ground shaking challenges, when your network is losing it's branches, i.e., your bucket 4 is depleting, and your reputation (bucket 5) is going downhill, you can be sure that the knowledge and skills that you've acquired throughout your life, are the only two things which will never leave your side.
With the ability to delay gratification, having patience, and being enthusiastic about gaining knowledge and converting it into usable skill.. we can be sure that we are putting our time and energy into long term asset building. (To understand better, please read this passage again)
For many of us reading this, we believe that we should also have a greater purpose than self. If you're self aware, you'll realize that giving is the real getting. As famously said, You get what you give.
Nothing will get you more happiness than giving happiness. Whether it means, being able help an old lady cross the road, being able to buy your mother expensive new clothes, taking your family on a trip, buying presents for your romantic partner and witnessing their reaction, along with more...
To fulfil these ambitions, we need to keep in mind, and I'll end with this, a phrase from the book-
"You cannot pour from empty buckets."
All the best!