The Faster the Flow - the More You Can Filter.

If you have a lot of clients incoming, you can be more picky. If you have a lot of volunteers or job applicant's it’s the same. But when your flow is slow, you might need to take it easy on your filter or you’ll be out of operation.

You can have high standards for your clients, employees, volunteers, friendships, life decisions and more… but you will probably need to increase the volume of people, places, and opportunities that you review. It’s hard to find that 1 in 1,000 opportunity without filtering through the other 999.

Conversely, if you’re flow of people, places, and opportunities is slow, you might need to adjust your standards to optimistically but realistically match your rate of opportunity flow.

A counter point to this, is that high standards are like a repellant to low standard people and a magnet to high standard people; so I see this as tuning in two complimentary but also competing principles to find that sweet spot somewhere in the middle.

• Slow flow in job applicants - change the application standard from college graduate to anyone who can pass your aptitude tests.

• Unwilling or unable to decrease the level of quality/filtration in your applicants (space engineers) - widen your net and increase your marketing for new recruits.

• Have 101 volunteers for every position, pick the best and most convenient for your schedule - lacking volunteers, either increase the flow or widen the net by increasing ways and opportunities for your pool of volunteers to serve in.

The wonderful thing about this principle is that it both helps us understand and optimize for where we are at in the present; and at the same time sheds light on what we’d need to do in the future to achieve our desired outcome.

Today I invite you to work with what you’ve got and optimize for the present and future by creating a plan for incoming opportunity flow and the filters you need to set to achieve your goals.

See you next Thursday!

Geno Schmelzer,

P.S. Check out my brand new podcast “Can I Ask You A Question?

World class people are multifaceted. In each conversation we’ll dive into more than just their most public accomplishments, and into the everyday habits and values that we can all learn from to live a life truly marked by health, wealth, and wisdom.