You can choose a career where you compete in a crowded field. Or you can do this.

How often do we deliberately decide where to put our efforts versus just falling into a job or a task that needs to be done but may not use our best strengths?

One of my favorite serial entrepreneurs likes working on big messy problems. When he started company No. 2, he had three huge areas in mind that he felt deserved serious thinking: energy, education, and health care. He decided on health care and built (and then sold) a successful company that helps health care organizations understand better how to provide effective services that have real value.

His approach to finding what to work on is largely driven by his curiosity and where he could make a difference. I just read a quote that captures this for me. In his blog, David Perell (https://bit.ly/30m6dLr), included this comment by Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist and visionary behind SENS Research Foundation:

“It has always appalled me that really bright scientists almost all work in the most competitive fields, the ones in which they are making the least difference. In other words, if they were hit by a truck, the same discovery would be made by somebody else about 10 minutes later.”

My CEO friend does the opposite. He looks for areas to work on that are in a space where there are fewer competitors and where his firm’s early moves can make a big difference. It would take much more than 10 minutes for anyone else to have the same impact.

I’ve tried to do something similar in my own career. I’m better at finding topics that haven’t been researched much and studying them before others do (e.g., human resource strategy, women working abroad, creativity in organizations and across disciplines). By the time the topics become more common and many researchers move into the space, I figure I can’t compete anymore. That’s when I start looking for new unexplored areas to pursue.

I have been lucky to be in a setting (my university) that has allowed and encouraged this rather eclectic approach to using my limited brain space.

Can you be intentional about how to choose where to put your efforts, attention and brain space?

Nancy Napier is a Boise State University distinguished professor. nnapier@boisestate.edu