Reliability Vs. Upside

Table of Contents

Over the past several months I’ve been studying the work of Nicholas Taleb and also Nic Peterson’s interpretation of Taleb’s work. What I’ve been particularly interested in and applying with more clarity is the Barbell Strategy or Seneca’s Bimodal Strategy.

There are many ways to name this strategy, but essentially it looks like this…


It’s often used with finances and medicine, but we can apply it in many areas of life. 

Essentially we first want to assess what we have going on right now. You can look at business, health, finance, relationships, etc. 

Business and The Barbell

Let’s look at business. For many their business sits in the middle of the barbell so they don’t have reliability or much potential upside. If that is the case they have essentially built themselves a job in Nic’s words. If you can’t step out of your business for any amount of time you’ve likely built a job. If you are the bottleneck in one or more areas you have probably built a job. 

Now, the good news is you can shift it. In order for your business to move to the left side of the barbell you will need better systems and a reliable team. There might also be parts of the business that sit on the right side of the barbell to give you exposure to the upside. 

There is no right or wrong in this strategy, but first we have to understand where we are and then be intentional about moving to where we want to be. 

Earlier this year I was clear that I wanted the business to sit on the left side of the barbell and my health and family needed to sit on the right side. 

Jay and I crafted things so that I could work about five hours a week and spend the rest of my time working out, eating well, spending quality time with the family and resting/restoring.

Waking Up From Winter

After six months of this I felt like I suddenly woke up from a slumber. I felt a desire to start building again. And Jay and I are doing just that. 

So now I’m reassessing where my different life things are on the barbell and making adjustments as needed. 

To rewind for a minute, when you look at the barbell, another perspective is that the left side offers the least risk and reward and the right side offers the most risk and reward. So as we assess where we are it’s helpful, for me at least, to look at where I am taking risks and if the risks I am taking actually have the potential to move me closer to what I want or if part of me is just aiming for MORE. 

More never gets us to a place of peace and fulfillment. Enough does. Read that again please. 

I could go on and on about the barbell strategy, but I would encourage you to take a few minutes to assess the areas of your life that are most important and what side of the barbell they sit on or if they are in the middle. When things are in the middle it typically means we are wasting resources in some way.

Blessings,

Ben

Ben McLellan
Ben McLellan

The Spiritual Entrepreneur- you can embody spirituality and still have a thriving business.

Subscribe To Our Newsletter
Get updates before others
More To Explore