It's not the wand, it's the magician.

This is advice given to me by an early tennis coach and it's advice that will help you focus on the things that matter. Here's how the story goes...

"It's not the wand, it's the magician."

This is advice given to me by an early tennis coach and it's advice that will help you focus on the things that matter. Here's how the story goes...

Anyone who's gone through learning a sport like tennis or golf usually gets caught up in thinking that the right equipment will make the difference between being good or bad at the game.

I was no different. I kept talking to this coach about how I needed a better tennis racquet and how the latest technology would help me play better. He kept encouraging me to stick with practicing the fundamentals and stay the course. I kept talking about getting a new tennis racquet. Until one day, he must have gotten fed up, and proceeded to pull out a really old, raggedy, wooden tennis racquet that looked like it was held together by hope and good luck. He used that old racquet to smoke me on the court.

Then he said, "it's not the wand, it's the magician."

We have to spend more time working on the fundamentals of ourselves. The fundamentals of ourselves include our biases, skills, mindsets, mental models, attitude, and all the other things that make up the patterns for how we think and behave. It's only when the fundamentals are in a good place that we can add tools and other external supplements to further enhance the fundamentals.

People early in their career put too much emphasis on tools and tactics. Coach them to develop the fundamentals.

How have you experienced this principle?