Why putting all your eggs in one basket is more likely to bring you both academic success and long-term career satisfaction.

Eggs vs. Baskets Dilemma

We want to give you an easy way to stand head and shoulders above the thousands of other professional school (and job) applicants you’re competing with. Anybody can do this, and it doesn’t take more time. In fact, it might save you time while making you a better candidate and allow you to have greater long-term career satisfaction and overall happiness in life.

Toronto Blue Jays signed infielder Darwin Barney in early 2017. Barney's an all-singing, all-dancing 29-year old who can play any infield position and won a Gold Glove a few years ago. The Jays are going to hand over $3,000,000 for the privilege.

But the Jays’ top batter, Edwin Encarnacion, left for Cleveland. Encarnacion doesn’t have the look of a top athlete. He’s on the heavy side. He’s barely broken a sweat in half a decade with the Jays. You’ll never see Encarnacion dive for a ball or spin into a graceful throw like Barney. In fact, he can’t field at all. All he does is hit. For this overweight, cumbersome drag, Cleveland is coughing up $20,000,000 - almost seven times more than our multitalented friend Barney is going to make!

"What madness has befallen the moneymen at Cleveland?", you wonder. And, “What does this have to do with my academic and career goals?!” The answer is simple. Encarnacion does one thing. But he does it really, really well.

You’ve probably spent a lot of time reading about med, law or dental school applications. Or perhaps you’ve spent hours trawling through your favorite company’s website. You’ve read the threads on online forums. You know your application needs to be packed with dozens of extracurricular experiences. Everyone knows that the more experiences you can pack into your application, the better your chances are, right? Wrong. 

The lesson every applicant can learn from our baseball story is that the $20,000,000 candidate excels at just one thing.

We want to let you in on a "secret" formula. Our batting super star, Encarnacion would have never got so good if he’d tried to do 27 things at once.

You see, we all have a limited amount of time, energy, and attention to dedicate to different activities on a daily basis. Let’s call this, “X”. (You may already be thinking “Guys, I hate math! Where is this going?!” Relax. This isn't going to get too complex!)

Now let’s call the total amount of energy and motivation you have “Y”.

And let’s define the total number of different activities you participate in as “n”.

Every time an activity is added, your total available time (X) is divided by n^2. Note that we have to divide total time by n to the power of 2, not n! That’s because we need to take into account the time it takes to learn a new set of skills first, develop new habits, and make new neural connections in your brain. That’s not even accounting for the time it takes to switch our single-task-loving brains from one activity to another. (Don’t believe us? Try studying for your organic chemistry exam while simultaneously playing hard-core competitive basketball – or do what the guy in the picture below is doing. If you want to learn more about this topic, but don’t want to get caught up in technical neuroscience, check out Nobel prize-winner Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow.) 

Now let’s put our formula together and let’s call it “BeMo's Eggs vs. Baskets Dilemma Formula of Excellence™”.

Therefore,

BeMo's Eggs vs. Baskets Dilemma Formula of Excellence™ =

Y (total time/activity) = X (total available time)/n^2

What if you have nothing to do at all? The formula simply says: 

Y=X/(0) = infinity (undefined) 

This means you've got a lot of time on your hand and nothing to do. I don’t have to tell you that but this is not very good, with two exceptions. Either—you guessed it—you’re really into that Buddhist monk career path, or you’re still figuring out what you want to do in life. That’s actually a really valuable and important stage. More on this in another blog.

Let’s say you focus on one thing. Our formula says: 

Y = X/1 = X

That means you can pour all your time and energy into just one task. Thinking. Reading. Experimenting. Practicing. Perfecting.

On the other hand, let’s say you switch between two tasks. Your total time/activity has already been reduced to 1/4th. If you meander between three tasks, your time/activity has already been slashed to 1/8th!

'Focusing' on 3 activities at once: Y = X/2^3 = X/8

The less time you spend on an activity, the less likely you will master it. You’re more likely to get frustrated and abandon ship. Worse, you’ll just rush from one activity to the next just for the sake of feeling you’re doing something.

The formula doesn’t just work with baseball. Modern life is full of achievers who became great by putting all their eggs in one basket.

Think of Steve Jobs, who obsessed over making the best personal computer. Jobs obsessively tinkered with minute design features for years to perfect the Mac. Apple, the world’s first trillion-dollar company, was built on this single-minded approach.

Think of Michael Jordan, who cast aside his first love—baseball—to doggedly pursue basketball. His success needs no explanation, but some of you may not know that Jordan did give professional baseball a go for a year, with fairly embarrassing results (and the less said about Quarterback-cum-pitching-wannabe Tim Tebow, the better).

So if you’re still thinking about med or professional school applications a few years in the future, spend some time finding your true passion. Try things out, experiment a little—play and have fun! Find what you love and what you’ll excel at, rather than what the media, your peers, or your parents say you should be doing.

When you hit on your passion, whether it’s volunteering, sport, music, writing, computer coding or anything else, throw yourself into it. We promise it’ll make you happier than jumping from one activity to another just because you think it looks good on your application or résumé. Don’t risk mediocrity. Choose achievement. Choose happiness.

“But what if I do this and I fail? Shouldn’t I be doing other activities just in case? What’s my Plan B?!”, you ask.

Okay, back down to Earth with a bump. If you fail, it means you are exploring fearlessly and enjoying your life. But Plan Bs are for those who are unsure of their true calling. And it’s a vicious cycle. Until you give 100% to something, no holds barred and no excuses, you won’t know if it’s your true calling or not.

For example, if you are truly passionate about pursuing a professional degree in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry or any other subject, your focus should be on just one thing. When admissions officers are reading dozens of applications for every spot, they’re looking to shape a class of interesting, outstanding candidates—not field a team of a dozen Darwin Barneys.

We can’t all be superstars like Encarnacion, Jobs or Jordan, but you can stand out by being a star in your own way. Pick an area to focus on and dedicate most of your time to. The more you do it, and the more you can show you really care about it, the better. 

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Here's an example:

Say, for instance, that you truly want to become a medical doctor, and as a premed student you decide to make mental health your focus (top tip: it’s a growing field). If you were an admissions officer, who would you pick of two candidates claiming they’re really passionate about mental health issues?:

• Candidate A, who has volunteered at a psychology lab for one summer, shadowed a family doctor for two weeks, run for student government for one school year, played in a sports team for half a semester, worked as a camp counsellor for three weeks, and volunteered at a hospital gift shop for six months; or
• Candidate B, who has volunteered at the same psych lab for three years starting out as an assistant before becoming an independent researcher with a published paper, worked for two years at a suicide crisis line, and organized a mental health awareness campaign at their university which has grown to more than 20 students across the campus raising $10,000 in three years.

One glance at these biographies tells you straight away that Candidate B is really dedicated to mental health. Here is someone who is interested in medicine, and seized the chance to go ahead and find out what things are really like in the field. When Candidate B tells us in their admissions essay that they’re “passionate about mental health”, you believe it. Candidate A just seems like they’re padding out a résumé with the things they think they should do, not what they want to do. Even if Candidate A is doing great work, and achieving amazing things, their story is of someone uncertain, confused, unsure of where they’re going or what they’re for (and they’re heading for stress and burnout to boot.) Candidate A could add a bunch more unrelated activities, but the more they do, the more they look like Darwin Barney. Candidate A’s never going to be the first pick for a team. (If you are an an admissions officer or employer reading this, watch out for these warning signs in your applicants’ résumés! Especially applicants with lots of short-term activities. In fact, we recommend that you completely eliminate traditional applications, situational judgment tests, and interviews. Select the best by directly measuring each applicant’s motivation. Click here to learn more.)

But you’re sure that Candidate B is going to be organizing, leading and getting involved in their real passion for mental health from day one of med school — hitting home runs for their patients, peers and colleagues.

This isn’t just hypothesis: universities are actively moving to a model that favors fewer and better extracurriculars. So if you’re reading this in your freshman year or at college, or even if you’re still in high school, you’ve got a great chance to forget what you’ve read everywhere else and focus your attention. What really motivates you? Is it mental health, or is it sports medicine, helping the elderly, or bringing healthcare to people who can’t afford it? Do you like defending others or do you like to solve puzzles? Get out there and follow your passion. Whenever in doubt simply apply the “Eggs vs. Baskets Dilemma Formula” above!

Click here to learn more about BeMo and find out what gets us up in the morning. 

About the authors:

Ian Garner is a senior admissions experts and graduating Ph.D. student in the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures at the University of Toronto, where he lectures in Russian language and literature. Ian’s research spans a number of fields, including Political Science, History, Film and Literary Studies. He has authored numerous publications on Russian film and worked as a professional academic translator. His work has been recognized with prizes and grants from numerous professional bodies, universities and government funding agencies.In his free time, Ian is a keen musician, sportsman and volunteer in the community.

Dr. Behrouz Moemeni is a co-founder and CEO here at BeMo. He is compelled by a vision to change the education system. He believes everyone deserves access to higher education. Specifically, he is determined to create and provide admissions and educational training programs that reduce the social barriers at professional programs. He is also driven by a mission to create the next generation of admissions/candidate screening tools that are more fair, while technologically and scientifically light years ahead of current admissions screening tools out there.

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting Inc.