Be the 5%

Back when I started working in politics I went to a few trainings and learned from some great folks. One of the key lessons I learned then and has stuck with me was something Matt Lewis said — “95% of the people in politics don’t know what they are doing. And that number is probably low. They just copy what someone else did that happened to work. But they don’t know why.”

I have found this statement is true across the board, regardless of industry. And recently it dawned on me that this 95–5% ratio is probably true throughout all of life.

But before you start determining if you fit into the 95% or 5%, let me lay out a few more things.

For those 95%, the biggest fear they have is not knowing. When we don’t know, we are not in control. And people love being in control — or at least thinking they are. This goes all the way back to the first sin in Genesis 3. The Fall is all about being in control.

Here’s something else — many people claim they don’t like change. Non-sense. It’s that we want to be in control of the change. Change itself doesn’t bother us. Without being in control, the 95% will resist change to some degree, without even knowing why sometimes.

So who are the 5%. You might initially think they are the ones who know what they are doing. I don’t think so. the other 5% don’t know what they are doing either. They are just willing to admit that they don’t know and that they are making it up as they go along, or using someone else’s ideas.