How to Grow Your Personal Leverage

CareerHealth

Dec 20

In 1994, fresh out of the MBA, I was interviewing with a hedge fund manager. I didn’t get the job, but I got something far more valuable.
He asked:
“What do an entertainer, a CEO, and a money manager have in common?”
Me: ….. “I don’t know.”
Him: “Leverage”
Why?
Their careers all have a one-to-many structure.
Although it took me a while to internalize, it’s been the most valuable lesson of my life.

Leverage gets a bad name

Leverage in the form of debt can make us prisoners to our assets
Leveraging the work of others can become taking advantage
Leveraging investments can increase risk and volatility

Not to mention leverage blowing up the financial system in 2008 and crypto in 2022!

But there’s a good side to leverage

Leveraging the internet to reach “your” people who need you
Leverage the career sectors and paths you choose
Leverage the incredible network you build

And, the most overlooked leverage of all?

Personal Leverage in your everyday acts.

Health
Career
Network

Here’s how to grow your personal leverage

Health

I worked 80-100 hour weeks for nearly a decade, and after that I could power through an 80 hour week when needed, even into my 50s!

You’d think this manic work schedule would require sacrificing “balance”. Instead, I redefined balance. I balanced my sports ambitions and my work ambitions, letting one advance while maintaining the other.

How does this work in practice?

When I worked 100 hour weeks during earnings season at the top hedge fund, Palantir Capital, I listened to earnings replays with my notepad and pen while walking uphill on a treadmill and lifting weights.
When Palantir shut down, I was able to take a year off and try out for the Olympics.
The following year, working less hours at OppenheimerFunds, I was 9th in the US World Cup Trials in Dressage while being responsible for over $6 billion in tech stocks…

How to implement these ideas:

Do something for yourself in each bucket (exercise, nutrition, connection) EVERY DAY, so when you want to ramp back up to top sport, you can
Taking care of my health doesn’t TAKE time away from work, it GIVES time back to work because I have higher energy, more focus, and better endurance than without my health.

Without health, you will either not arrive at your desired destination (you’ll be too tired and unfit to compete at work) or you will arrive not able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. The three components of health are exercise, nutrition and friendships. These work together to give you physical and mental health.

1. Exercise: This is not about running a marathon before work each day! Simply move each day to train your body that you expect it to be prepared to move the next day. Grab moments when you have more time to move more. Find what you like and make it easy to get done. For more on this, read my article Leverage TOP Athletes’ Key Workout Lessons without Quitting Your Day Job

2. Nutrition: Eat whole foods. That’s all folks! Nutrition is simple, but not easy. You can get 85% of the way there by eliminating processed foods, sugar, and drugs of abuse. Then eat whole foods that work with your schedule and digestion.

3. Friends: You’re so focused on your career, you have no time for friends. Wrong! When you keep up friendships, your outlook on life is brighter and you are far more efficient at work. Plus you’ll have people to enjoy the fruits of your labor with!

Now you have your foundation of health to bring your best self to your career.

Career

Your day-to-day tasks in your career can be high leverage or low leverage.

If you are starting out, the key is to question how you can make each low leverage moment higher leverage. And if you are further on in your career, question if imposter syndrome is preventing you from delegating so you can do your best, highest leverage work.

Examples:

1. Repeated tasks:

My first job was a very exciting role as a Xerox clerk in a law firm. I made copies and ran the file room. Boring? Nope!

Using skills learned in a speed reading class (thanks Mom for signing me up!), I read and soaked up everything I copied as it was flipping through the copier.

Six months later due to internal politics, I got promoted from the bottom rung to the top, lead litigation paralegal for the entire office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Seattle. I was set up to fail. But I succeeded because I had spent 6 months reading everything the office created.

2. Mundane tasks:

Investment bankers take companies on an IPO “road show” where management teams of new companies meet with investment managers deciding whether to buy the stock on the IPO. These bankers have recent college grads create, print and carry slide decks that discuss the company’s business. These college grads do this for 1-2 years before moving on to private equity or becoming a more senior banker and helping on deals.

Where’s the leverage in making decks all day?

When they are on the road, they are meeting with senior managements and senior investment managers. Any time you are in a role of making and distributing copies among more senior people, introduce yourself, grab as many business cards as you can, reach out on LinkedIn. Build your network. More senior business people love to help enthusiastic smart professionals on their way up.

3, Delegation:

Mundane task are part of business no matter how senior you are, what you do about them differs. When you are the junior person, that is your job, so then squeeze the most leverage out of it. When you are more senior, the trap is different.

Ask yourself: What can I delegate?

And more importantly: Why am I hesitant to delegate?

It could be imposter syndrome, thinking you don’t deserve help. Often, it’s issues with control, thinking no one can do it as well as you. Flip the switch.

What is the highest and best use of your time?

And…you might find, as I have, that others have better, fresh ideas on how to accomplish the tasks you delegate.

Network

Your network is your net worth.

This phrase is overused yet underappreciated.

How in the WORLD will you have time to network if you are nose-to-the-grindstone working 80+ hours a week in finance, and not yet senior enough to delegate tasks?

You will leverage micro-moments of connection.

Dr. Barbara Friedricksen of University of Chapel Hill, NC studied the brains of people communicating, and discovered something remarkable about love. She wrote a book about it called Love 2.0.

Love is built one micro-moment at a time.

Love and personal connection is not about grand gestures (although those can be fun!). Instead love is created one moment at a time. What is it about certain moments that build love and connection vs other moments?

You treat the other person as if they are the only person in the world for that moment.

The breakthrough finding here is you can build a deeper human connection in less time by focusing 100% on that person during the time you have. This fits into your high stress, high reward career where you are working non-stop.

Dr. Fredrickson turned her own marriage around.
She was working on studies, teaching and writing books. Her husband would call to chat, and she would be distracted, letting him talk, while sitting at her desk doing a little multitasking on the side. She thought all her work was making them more distant.
Then she saw her study’s results:
Micro-moments of connection built love.
She started fully engaging with her husband at home and on the phone. The time they spent was more concentrated, more full of love and emotion, and shorter. And their love grew stronger again, like going back in time to when they first met and were so interested in everything the other person said.

You can use micro-moments of connection in your personal and professional life to build deep and meaningful connections.

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