The business book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins contains a chapter, "The Hedgehog Concept," about how the "great" companies found what they could be world-class at and ran with it. This "one big thing" comes at the intersection of three questions:
1. What you can be the best in the world at
2. What drives your economic engine
3. What you are deeply passionate about
The author applies the concept to an individual's career as an analogy, one which resonated strongly with me, as I and many of my gen-X/Y peers are struggling to find our (individualy tailored, of course) "one big thing." The author discusses the difference between a Hedgehog Concept and a "core competence":
"You can have competence at something but not necessarily have the potential to be the best in the world at it.... [M]any people have been pulled or fallen into careers where they can never attain complete mastery and fulfillment. Suffering from the curse of competence but lacking a clear Hedgehog Concept, they rarely become great at what they do."
I haven't formed my own Hedgehog Concept yet, suffering the exact curse that Mr. Collins has defined. But I'm working on breaking it.
What's your Concept? How do you focus your strengths and minimize your weaknesses?
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