Breakthrough Learnings

While I listened to NYU Professors Adam Alter and Scott Galloway discuss Alter’s new book, Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most, I was struck by several points:

1.     If you’re engaged, you’re not stuck. Alter pointed to his father, a mathematician who spent 30 years working on a problem before cracking it. He wasn’t bored but always learning.

2.     Slow down and deal with your complicated emotions to become mentally unstuck. Alter noted a world soccer player who’s wracked with tremendous anxiety as he takes the field. To cope, he watches everyone play for the first couple of minutes. In that time, he assesses the players’ strengths and weaknesses and gets in position. It’s helped make him great.

3.     There are three buckets in life: must do, want to do, should do. As you move from exploring (saying yes to new things), to exploiting (focusing and saying no more often), your goal is to eliminate the “should do” bucket. Across industries, when people are experiencing a hot streak, research shows they are saying no to the “should dos.” This is a point of privilege, as Alter and Galloway noted.  

4.     Don’t exploit too soon. Alter pointed to working on a paper for years, then learning that someone else was publishing on his exact topic before Alter was ready to release his own research.

5.     Consult three kinds of people when working on a challenge: like-minded people, nonredundant people (those different from you), and black sheep who will tell you you’re wrong.

6.     Be vulnerable with people. That means sharing details about yourself and your challenges. Not only will it foster much-needed connection, but people will be more likely to help you and become invested in your success.

7.     Frequently take a friction audit of your path. Ask yourself: “Am I oriented in the right direction?”

8.     Know when to move on to the next thing.