16X Better Results
About two weeks ago, just before I accepted the employment offer from Microsoft, Lisa Arthur, my team leader and Mindjet Chief Marketing Officer gave me a short book by Richard Koch, The Breakthrough Principle of 16x about how to get better results from taking advange of the 80/20 rule. (The two events had nothing to do with each other.) I just read the book on the ferry ride to San Francisco this morning and one passage shouted out to me:
"The easiest and most enjoyable way to excel at work, plus have a happier life of high achievement, is to invest more in your best talents. That starts with you figuring out where you shine the most. You have to identify your strong suits before you can play to them on a consistent basis. So ask yourself what you're brilliant at, then ask two or three of your friends you trust and who have good insight into your personality."
- Richard Koch, The Breakthrough Principle of 16x, page 30.
Joining the Developer and Plaform Evangelism group at Microsoft is investing more in my best talent.
I got some similar advice early in my career. When I was finishing up my Bachelor's of Architecture degree from the University of Arizona, my mentor and thesis advisor, Chuck Albanese, told me to find what I loved and what I was good at and become the best at it. That is when I decided not to go down the career path to become an architect (after 5 years of architecture school) but combine what I loved (architecture) with what I was good at (computer software) and learn how to build architectural software in a Master's program.
Are you spending 80% of your time on things that you don't like doing or aren't doing well?
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About Michael S. Scherotter
Educated as an architect, Michael has made his career in software development about combining technology in interesting ways.
After getting his Bachelor's of Architecture from the University of Arizona, Michael received a Master's of Architecture from UCLA specializing in Design Tool Development.
From there, he joined Tartus, Inc., a sofware consulting firm specializing in building architectural sofware. At Tartus, Michael rose to the role of lead software architect for BC Framer, a custom CAD solution for Boise Cascade Corporation. In this role he designed and lead development of the software through six successful release cycles.
At Mindjet, Michael started by managing the software development teams for the first tablet-pc enabled version of MindManager and MindManager X5.
From 2003 to 2007, Michael was in business development and marketing roles as a Business Solution Architect and as the Solution Platform Product Manager for MindManger. Michael designed and built the first enterprise integration for MindManager, the Accelerator for Salesforce.com which served as a reference implementation for future enterprise integrations. In this role, he created, directed, and maintained the Mindjet Labs and became the evangelist for the MindManager Solution Platform.
Now Michael is a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft Corporation.
