The Five Buckets
The sum of these five buckets is the sum of your professional potential. The fullness of these buckets will determine how big, believable and achievable your dreams are to you, and to those that hear them.
The five buckets are
What you know (your knowledge)
What you can do (your skills)
Who you know (your network)
What you have (your resources)
What the world thinks of you (your reputation)
these five buckets are interconnected - fill one helps to fill another - and they are filled in order of left to right and in this above list it will be up to down.
We usually start our professional life by acquiring knowledge from school, university, etc. when knowledge is applied it call skill. When we have knowledge and skill we are valuable to other that grow our network. Consequently when we have knowledge, skill, and network, resources expands. And when we have knowledge, skill, network, and resources we have reputation.
With these five buckets and their interconnected relationship in mind, it’s clear that an investment in the first bucket (knowledge) is the highest-yielding investment you can make. Because when that knowledge is applied (skill), it inevitably cascades to fill your remaining buckets.
“Knowledge is power”
“Knowledge, when applied(skill), is power”
Always build your first and second bucket first before 4 or 5. For example the story of Richard that got an offer to become the CEO of marketing company with double salary( resources) with no experience of managing people( knowledge). After 18 months his company get close they have no money left and Richard became unemployed because he didn't build his first bucket(knowledge).
Prioritise filling those first two buckets and your foundations will have the long-term sustainability you need to prevail, regardless of how life’s tectonic plates move and shake beneath you.
Author define it as professional earthquake as an unpredictable career event that adversely impacts you. Just like when my grandfather lost workers to work for our company and we get unpredictable carrer event.
There are only two buckets that any such professional earthquake can never empty - it can take away your network, it can take your resources, it can even impact your reputation, but it can never remove your knowledge and it can never unlearn your skills.