Press Your Advantage
Turn your strongest existing ability into the bridge to your next opportunity.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 94%
Press Your Advantage starts with evidence, not aspiration: identify the ability that already produces unusually strong work or attracts recognition. Apply it to the opportunity directly in front of you, even if the role itself is not your ultimate ambition. Then enlarge the assignment by solving more important problems, improving the standard of execution, and becoming unusually useful. That usefulness creates trust, visibility, and access to the next opportunity. The mechanism is cumulative: a demonstrated strength produces responsibility; responsibility produces proof; proof makes a larger move credible. Higgins illustrates it with writing, turning a small problem-solving newspaper column into investigative work and using communication as a bridge out of poverty rather than waiting for a perfect role.
Origin
Higgins derived the method from using his writing ability first in a congressman's office and then at the Queen's Tribune, where he expanded a small problem-solving column into award-producing investigative work.
Core principles
- 01Spend more energy on proven strengths than perceived deficiencies.
- 02Treat the current role as a bridge rather than a destination.
- 03Exceptional work attracts people who can expand your opportunity.
- 04Make a small opening larger through initiative.
How to run it
- 1
Find the demonstrated gift
Look for an ability that already earns praise, trust, or unusually good outcomes. Prefer observed evidence over a strength you merely hope to possess.
Pro tip Ask which task people repeatedly bring to you when the stakes are high.
Watch out Do not begin by cataloguing everything you lack.
- 2
Apply it where you are
Use the strength on the most useful task available in your current role. The first application does not need to resemble your eventual destination.
Pro tip Choose a neglected problem where better execution will be visible.
- 3
Enlarge the opening
Take the assignment beyond its minimum scope by solving adjacent problems and raising its value. Convert a small permission into proof that you can handle more.
Pro tip Expand outcomes, not just workload.
Watch out Do not confuse being busy with becoming indispensable.
- 4
Build indispensability
Deliver consistently enough that decision-makers associate you with exceptional utility. Let the quality of the work create advocates and leverage.
Watch out Indispensability should create mobility, not permanent overwork.
- 5
Cross the bridge
Use the credibility, relationships, and experience produced by the role to move toward the work you ultimately want. Carry the strength forward into a larger arena.
Pro tip Define the next bridge before the current role becomes comfortable stagnation.
In the wild
At 16, Higgins recognized that writing was his strongest ability. An opportunity at the Queen's Tribune began as a small column addressing readers' problems. He expanded it into larger investigative pieces, collaborated with major New York City reporters, and produced work that led to awards. Reporting was not his ultimate goal, but it became a bridge to higher-level communication roles.
→ A demonstrated writing advantage created experience, recognition, and a route into public-service communications.
Common mistakes
Fixating on weaknesses
Spending most of your energy on what you are not can hide the ability that already offers leverage.
Waiting for the perfect role
Dismissing the current job as pointless forfeits the chance to turn it into a bridge.
Expanding effort instead of value
More hours do not create indispensability unless the work solves larger or more important problems.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people in modest or imperfect roles who already show unusual ability in one area.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the claimed strength has no external evidence or useful application in the current environment.
From the transcript
“every one of us has some kind of gift some kind of advantage that we could press but we spend so much energy worrying about…”
“make yourself indispensable at whatever it is you're doing right now because that is the path to do what you ultimately want to do”
From the episode
Matt Higgins: Burn the Boats, Refuse to Die. Legendary Shark Makes the Case for No Plan B
Matt Higgins