Only a few decisions really matter. Even Warren Buffett has often credited the majority of his success to a handful of really good judgment calls. It can be easy to get the impression that working all the time is the key to getting the project where it “needs” to be, but this is a trap more often than not. The bulk of the hours are typically not spent on what is most valuable.
Maybe it’s true that to arrive at the magic formula it really takes 5000 failed attempts, but what if it wasn’t? What if we could reverse engineer the small set of actions that actually make the magic happen? It’s not 80/20 but 5/70 or 2/50.
For those looking for more autonomy and to separate money and time, we must hone the ability to produce wildly disproportionate value. This is the domain of creativity. Nobody making 1000 bucks an hour is earning based on hours in, but rather value added.
Fortunately, the art of creating incredible value is a skill that can be honed like any other. Not only can we apply this thinking to the past success of others or our own projects, we can also utilize this to invent more brilliant work.
“If this project is successful, what would be the biggest contributor to that success?”
By flipping the question, we can make it even more powerful.
“What’s the part of the project that would ruin everything if I fucked it up?”
The answer is often different. Sometimes it’s the cover of the book or the ending, sometimes it’s the way the model’s eyes are pointing, but the importance of executing the thing well is always extremely high.
Depending on the approach hitting a home run can take 100 swings or 2. Perhaps getting a few things right is actually more important than luck.
FourthEye 
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