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Stephen Mayo | Shortcuts

Shortcuts

Aug. 15, 2021

"There are no shortcuts in life"

It’s an oft-cited cliché. But of course there are shortcuts. Or at least, there are short pathways.  Some routes are faster than others.

If you want to be really good at the piano, it'll probably go faster if you hire an instructor to help you.  If you want to advance quickly in your career, it’ll probably happen faster if you build a strong network.  Are those shortcuts?  Sure.

The catch is: it's not always easy to discern whether the shortcut on the table is a wise formula for enduring success, or a path to quick wins that won’t last.   

An 8-year old soccer player that is bigger and stronger than the other kids may find that the shortest path to scoring goals is embracing a rough style of play, using his size and speed to push around the other players. It’s a shortcut to success, and it works well, at least for a year or two.  

But eventually the other kids start to get bigger and faster, too.   And it may become apparent that the child with the early growth spurt has been neglecting other important skills like dribbling and passing because he didn’t need them as an 8-year-old.  If so, the child may find that the fastest route to success as an 8-year-old wasn’t such a good tradeoff for his teenage career.

Sometimes the most critical decisions are recognizing when to take the shortcut, and when it’s best to go the long way around.




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