[quote user="ben egbert"]The Parato Principal is one of my constant assumptions in all areas of life. The 80/20 rule. I don't really think of it as 80/20 though. I simply believe that in any endeavor, a select few will be far better than the many. I am a firm believer in specialization. I don't believe anyone can will themselves to be the best at anything unless they have some natural talent for it.

I guess anyone can improve themselves in any area by hard work and will power, but all that means is that they may get proficient, and that may be good enough in many instances. But the very best are few in number, and need more than just hard work to get that way.

There are just a few things that I can do well enough that I should attempt them myself. For all the rest, I find the best. I started out thinking that investing was one of those things I could learn well enough to be proficient, if not exemplary. The problem is, in investing you really do need to be exemplary to do better than simply indexing.

So the choice boils down to:

1.Having the natural talent and developing it.
2.Hire those who have the natural talent.
3.Index.

I choose number 2 when I figured out I would never be number 1.

Ben

Originally posted in thread: 2834[/quote]

Have natural talent, hire it or index.

LOVE IT! 

:)