Steven Bartlett

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

1. What you know (your knowledge)

2. What you can do (your skills)

3. Who you know (your network)

4. What you have (your resources)

5. What the world thinks of you (your reputation)

I raised my hand. The guru gestured at me to deliver my question. I asked, ‘Is building a business, and enriching myself, a more noble pursuit than going back to Africa to try and save lives?’

The guru stared at me as if he could see into the depths of my soul, and after a long, blinkless pause he proclaimed: ‘You cannot pour from empty buckets.’

Almost a decade on from that moment, it’s never been clearer what the guru meant. He was telling me to focus on filling my own buckets, because someone with full buckets can positively bend the world in any way he or she desires.