The 3 types of people

The first type is the fool. This is someone whose sense of proportion is out of whack.

The fool will take a little issue (a comment someone says, a small slight at a party, etc.) and make it into a huge issue. Or he’ll take something big (a huge purchase, for example) and make it seem trivial, as if he has the money.

Fools focus their attention on things that make little to no change on their lives and ignore things that can make a huge impact. For them, it’s a problem of ego.

What ends up occurring with fools is that their life is often a mess, filled with unpaid bills, unhappy partners, unstable relationships, screwed up finances, etc.

The second type is the tactician. These types are problem-solvers. Unlike the fool, who sees big problems as small and small problems as big, tacticians treat every problem the same – big or small. They’ll put the same amount of energy into solving big problems as they will little ones.

The problem with the tactician is that little problems, because they are easy to create, far outnumber big problems. You’ll encounter so many more little problems, and thus waste so much more energy trying to solve them.

So the tactician, for example, will spend hours designing the perfect promotional flyer. Or they’ll spend hours trying to craft the best, most well-thought out response to an email.

This leads tacticians to be burnt out, overwhelmed, and unable to mentally focus on solving the big problems efficiently.

The third type, and the ideal model here, is the strategist. The strategist has a realistic sense of proportion regarding the problems he faces in life. He knows which problems are big and which problems are little.

What’s important about the strategist is that he can distinguish between all kinds of problems. He knows there are little problems that can lead to bigger problems. He knows there are urgent problems that aren’t important, and important problems that aren’t urgent.

Even more, the strategist knows that solving certain problems first makes solving other problems either easier or irrelevant. So he plans out which problems he’s going to solve first and then second and so on.

The key quality to focus on here is the ability to distinguish between different kinds of problems. If there is any skill to develop in life, it is this.

I state it simply here, but don’t get me wrong: this is not an easy skill. But it is a skill that makes life so much easier, freeing you up for more while doing less. It may be impossible to fully develop, but only good things can come from trying.