I recently stumbled upon Gary Vaynerchuk’s (Garyvee) 2016 interview with the late Larry King. Answering a question on his views on self-awareness, he says, “I know where I start and where I stop.” Although I don’t agree with many things he says, when it comes to self-awareness, I’m fully on board.
In the same interview, Garyvee, who is now one of the biggest names in social media and influencer marketing, mentions that he was terrible at school as a kid. But instead of dwelling on it, he went all in on his entrepreneurial skills, selling baseball cards, blow pops, lemonade. He was a kid hustler.
In his own words, he “punted” school. Now I’m not in full agreement that you should totally disregard school just because you’re bad at it. However, what got me really excited was the term he used: Punt.
I learned about punting as a strategy through fantasy basketball, which has been my recent addiction. In most fantasy basketball leagues, you win by winning the majority of a certain number of categories. For 9-category leagues, you win a match by winning at least five of the nine categories. For instance, if your team grabs the most rebounds in a week, then you win that category. That’s one category down.
Many team managers would use a punt strategy. Punting, which literally means to ‘give up’ or ‘let go’, happens when you select certain categories (usually your weakest) that you wouldn’t mind losing in, so that you can increase your chances of winning the rest of the categories.
Say, your team is bad at rebounds and blocks. Punting means you let these categories go. Focus on trading for and acquiring players who maximize other categories instead. Trade for guards, instead of centers. Win in assists, points, 3-pointers, etc.
In other words, accept your weaknesses as they are. Lose voluntarily in those aspects if you have to. In the meantime, focus on building your strengths.
It’s not a foolproof strategy, but when executed well, it gets the job done. Garyvee did the same thing as a kid, as he continues to do today by punting on the many things he’s bad at. And I’d like to think many effective people apply the same strategy.
Punting works because behind it is a fundamental truth: You can’t do them all. You can’t win them all. You can’t have them all.
When we discern (and much of self-awareness lives in discernment), we often ask ourselves: What am I good at? What is my passion? Where does my purpose lie? How can I be most impactful? These are difficult questions. Most times, we don’t arrive at concrete answers, or we’re paralyzed by the questions themselves.
“I know where I start and where I stop.”
Garyvee
Our first instincts tell us to focus on what we love to do or what we’re good at, “where I start.” Meanwhile, the punt strategy first looks at the “where I stop” part. What am I bad at? Where are my limits? Where can I punt?
More than keeping your weaknesses accounted for, punting also asks: What can I improve? What can I delegate? Which areas can I depend on others for? Which ones can I go easy on myself on?
In the end, the goal is self awareness. To know ourselves deeply and honestly. With it, we know exactly what and what not to expect from ourselves. Without it, we end up like the J Cole lyrics: “The good news is, you came a long way. The bad news is, you went the wrong way”