Be Ruthless to the Things That Don't Matter

I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.

This stoic is one I try to teach new people to IT and security. In 2005 I got stationed at a submarine school in Norfolk, VA. This is where i first experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed. It was self induced. I was saying yes to everything and getting overworked which is funny because in the Navy when you get shore duty you usually cut out of work early. Still, I was some how stressed out and overworked. My chief at the time gave me quite possibly the most important advice in my young career. He said, “Just say no.”

That realization helped me determine what was worth my time and what wasn’t. When you get good at work and gain a reputation for doing good work, more work tends to follow. It’s very important to determine what matters and what doesn’t. My security engineering team is the team that picks up the work other teams can’t pick up. We’ve implemented technology and then passed it off, because the other work didn’t have the time or skill set. We recently took badge photos for 700+ corporate employees because the physical security group (one man and remote) wasn’t able to support that function.

We have access to the badge systems and we’re usually the ones that meet the technicians when they come on site. I don’t mind being a back up, but I don’t want to be the primary either. I’ve pushed hard to have every thing run through our physical security person, instead of my guys who are often reached out to solve local physical security issues. We’ve got our own work and if there is that much physical security work then the company needs to hire more people for that function. That’s the case I’ve made and it seems to resonate.

I consider myself a generalist in security, which means I’m able to jump in multiple areas and do the work. That can quickly become overwhelming for myself and my team, so I ascribe to the stoic for today. Determine what truly matters and say no to the rest. Ask the question, “what value will this bring me?” If it’s very little or nothing then say no. 7