Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

In this session we contemplate the saying, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket', using it to discuss the need to diversify our interests and options, we also discuss some of the downsides of not going all in on your strengths.

This track is taken from my course, ‘Live Your Most Fulfilling Life’, available now via my profile.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the session. I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable. You can close down the eyes if you wish and take a deep slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. In a moment I'm going to share with you a proverb, Aphorism, Idiom or saying for you to contemplate. And I invite you to do so as deeply as possible. To look beyond your initial default reactions to it and to consider it from all sides. To be open to it guiding you, Encouraging you and informing you of potential knowledge, Insights and wisdom that may be lying just below the surface. Our goal with each of these daily contemplations is to use the session to acquire a deeper understanding of ourselves, The world and our place within it. So let's take another slow deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth and consider the following. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. So this saying, Don't put all your eggs in one basket, One of the more common aphorisms in this course. But don't let the common wisdom or the more sort of pervasive the wisdom is dissuade you from its use. We have this pushback of going, Oh everyone's talking about it or it's so common that it just loses all meaning. But let's really consider this advice. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Literally, You're harvesting eggs, Taking them out from the roost, If you put them all into one basket and that basket gets dropped or destroyed or stolen, You've lost your harvest, You're going hungry. And that's not ideal, Right? So the advice here is to not put all your eggs in one basket. The advice here is to diversify. Diversification is a financial term and this is in no way financial advice, But the idea is that rather than putting all of your money into one investment, You split it. So if one thing goes down, You don't suffer a catastrophic loss. If all your eggs are in one basket and that basket gets destroyed, You are now in a pretty bad place. Makes sense. The logic of it makes sense in some contexts because we'll explore the positives, But then we'll also explore maybe a pushback against this one. Let's consider the different sort of baskets that we might be putting our eggs into. Don't put your eggs into one basket, Relationship-wise, If you have one friend and that one friend has an issue, You have an issue with them, There's an argument and that relationship starts to break down. Not only do you have no one to go to, To talk through, To seek advice, To share, But you've also lost 100% of your socialising. It's a bit weird to put it into maths terms, But I think it sort of helps with this one. You have 10 friends and you have an issue with one of them. Not only do you have nine more to seek advice from, But you're only risking, You're only going to lose 10% of your friendship group if something breaks. Now obviously this maths doesn't really make sense, It doesn't quite sort of hold, But it sort of does serve to show you the need to have more than one friend, The need to not put all of your eggs into that friendship basket. Because what if something happens? It's the idea of diversification and it applies to a variety of different things. If you want to grow and succeed in life, Should you double, Triple down on your strengths or should you work on your weaknesses? There's a heated debate, It depends on who you follow and who you listen to and the research you undertake, But ostensibly the jury is still out. If we follow this advice though, Not to put all the eggs in one basket, It'd be worthwhile ensuring that you take steps to grow in a variety of different aspects. Not just pursuing your greatest strengths, But also having a backup plan. You know the cliche idea of a sports star who gets injured and that's their career gone, Oftentimes before they've even had it. It's heartbreaking and if they don't have a backup plan, If they don't have another idea, It could be catastrophic. Same thing in business, Entrepreneurship. For me personally with my books, If I put all my eggs in one basket, I'm like, This book is going to be the one, This book. I'm like, This book is going to be the one, This book. What are the chances of that? Some of the books I release are very successful, Others barely dint, Barely scratch, No one buys them. If I put all my eggs into that basket and no one buys them, Not a great place to be. I may not want to write anymore, I may be facing financial issues, Putting all my eggs into that one basket. What does it mean to even put your eggs into one basket? It means you're committing heaps of effort, Heaps of resources, Time, Money, Focus, Attention. And if it goes to waste, If that basket gets broken or stolen, All of that is for naught. Unless of course, You act with a little bit of wisdom. What if that book you're writing, What if that task you're doing, What if that project you're creating benefits you regardless of the outcome? By doing that project, You grow, You learn. See, We're a little sort of hedging our bets here. Yeah, We've got a bit of insurance, We'll go back to financial terms. You're making sure that whether or not the venture succeeds, You're growing. That's something to consider. But the other thing to consider with this idea of don't put all your eggs in one basket is the opposite. Maybe we should put our eggs in one basket. If that basket, That investment, That project, That whatever is doing well, Wouldn't it be good to double, Triple, Quadruple down upon that? Because it's working, Something's finally doing good. And if I split my attention, If I diversify, If I focus elsewhere, I'm not, You know, Striking while the iron's hot to add another. Another little aphorism, Maybe we'll talk about that in a later session. But the point is, Is that sometimes the only way to be successful in a certain area is to go all in, Is to risk it. Because what if to be successful in that area, You need to put it all into that basket, 100% focus, All of your resources. Indeed, To attain the greatest of heights, Professional athlete, Bestselling author, Business person, Actor, Whatever it is, You may have to sacrifice all else. And there is a risk of catastrophic failure. But there's also a risk of exponential reward. And I think it, You know, Knowing whether to follow this aphorism or not comes down to your personality, Your goals, Your desires, How much you want it, And what it is you're wanting. Because in some aspects of life, If you don't go all in, If you don't try, You can't possibly succeed. Like a competition, If you're competing against someone, And they're all in and you're not, What's the chances that you're going to win that battle? Probably less. The person that's all in, That's dedicated, Will probably win in that arena, On the sports field, On the competition mat, In that particular aspect of business. So if that was your goal, If you want to win in that aspect of life, You really have to push down that path. And that's okay, You can. But know that compared to that person who's all in in that area, If you're diversifying, If you're putting eggs in different baskets, You're going to be having life success in different areas, In ways that that person may not be. And that's something to consider. When the results come back, If you look internally and you go, Okay, I didn't go all in. So I can't expect to be as successful as those in this one particular area, As those people that are going all in. But look at my life, I've got all these other things sorted. It's a balancing act. A lot of these sayings and aphorisms and other things in this course, They're contradicted by other ones in this course. Because yeah, Don't put all your eggs in one basket, Right? Because yeah, Like if you lose that basket, It's going to, Yeah, You're in a bad place. But yeah, Strike while the iron's hot, Go deep, Go hard, Get it done, You know, Pursue your passions. There is a contradiction here, Contradiction of advice, Because oftentimes both things are true. And the wisdom comes from deriving the difference, You know, When do I go all in? And when do I play it safe? And if you can thread that needle, If you can derive that truth, You will find yourself in a place of acting optimally. And you will know when to diversify, And you'll know when to go all in. And you'll know that no matter which one you choose, The act of doing that task, Doing that activity is causing you to grow. So no matter what, It's a win, Win, Win. Even if you lose, Even if it's the wrong choice, Even if you lose, Even if it's the wrong choice, Even if that basket gets broken, Or you should have went a little bit more harder, A little bit more extreme in your pursuit, You learn, The learning there is key, The growth there is key. So I ask you to consider, Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. So, Well done. This brings us to the end of the session. At the bottom of your screen, You see an option to view the classroom, Or to ask a question. And before moving on, I invite you to take a moment to click through and share your insights, To read the answers from other students, And to hear my replies. Remember to start your responses by restating the contemplation. In this case, Eggs in a basket, So we know which one you're referring to. This is an opportunity for deep learning, Further introspection and insight, So please don't miss out. I look forward to seeing you in the next session. Thank you. This track is taken from my course, Live Your Most Fulfilling Life. It's out now on Insight Timer and is available via my profile. I invite you to check it out. See you there.