I was at the gym yesterday, and a friend with very slim calves had to show me this video* of this fine gentleman cooking the most delicious-looking mouthwatering eggs I’ve ever seen.
I could almost smell them. They looked so tasty, with just the right balance of crispiness at the bottom mixed with liquid warmth and softness at the top…
The video had more than 50 million views and a spicy amount of comments ranging from “marry me and cook these eggs for me every day” to “omg” and “emojis.”
“A Man Is About as Big as the Things That Make Him Angry.”
—Winston Churchill
It probably didn’t hurt that the cook looked quite handsome.
Now, equipped with this new information about egg cooking, I could do one of the following two things (provided I have an interest in cooking, which I have really zero). But bear with me for the sake of argument.
- I could try and replicate the craft of this fine gentleman
- I could watch more egg cooking videos to acquire more information
In the case of me replicating right away following the detailed instructions he gave, it’s just a matter of following along. It can’t be that hard, right?
No, wrong.
If I try to do that and replicate it, I’ll notice what many cooking aficionados have noticed before or what any student has done before.
It’s going to take a fair deal of practice to master the craft and be able to cook the same top-shelf quality of eggs.
You know how I call it: “time under the bar.”
It will take a lot of reps to learn and notice all the nuances, all the little details there are in egg cooking that can’t be transmitted in any 3 minutes, 3 hours, or even 3 weeks course.
It’s simply the nature of crafts. It’s impossible to transmit everything in a one-sided way without interaction and practice.
I could also decide I want to go with the second option and watch more egg-cooking videos.
If I do this for a while, say after watching egg cooking videos for 12 weeks, I’ll feel like I know a great deal about egg cooking and will eventually have the nerve (the audacity, mind you) to give others advice on how to cook eggs.
I’ll even know enough about egg cooking to have theoretical egg cooking conversations with other theoreticians of egg cooking.
Bear in mind that I’ve cooked (rounded up to the next integer) zero eggs myself in that scenario. Yet, I’ll have so much theoretical knowledge; I’d feel like I know.
But in fact, I don’t.
The only thing I’d know is how to find videos about egg cooking.
Now, where am I going with this?
Is this a cooking blog?
No, it’s not a cooking blog. Although I can tell you that one of the best investments I think one can make is having cooked food made for them by professionals. It’s a “very” high ROI.
Anyway, I was talking about eggs all along when I really wanted to talk about business. What I call business doesn’t need to be entrepreneurial. Managing your career is business too. I would argue it’s even one of the hardest business ventures there is.
For what business expertise goes, you could choose to watch videos of experts talking about their expertise and how to do the thing you’re interested in doing.
Two things:
- What makes you think what worked then works now?
- How have you vetted the expertise? Against what metric?
Even if the answers to both those questions are in the expert’s favor.
They’ll make everything sound easy and simple. And candidly speaking, most things are simple to understand. Yet, not easy to do.
But it gets better.
Look, let’s completely disregard the option of watching videos or reading books for X time without taking action.
That’s useless.
But there’s something to be said about learning something new and applying it right away.
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot. Who would you be the most afraid of if you had two competitors?
The one competitor who feels like they need all the information before doing anything or the competitor who sees you do something and is already doing the same thing next week? By week 2, they’ll already have iterations on your concept and so on.
Simply put. Nothing beats doing.
*I didn’t link the video since protecting your focus and mental strength is my business.
