Waste as little effort as possible on low competence

One should waste as little effort as possible on improving areas of low competence. It takes far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.

  1. ​95%-ile isn't that good​
  2. ​On Talent​

One of Drucker's few recommendations that seems empirically wrong. It's easy to be better than most people, not so easy to be among the best. Dan Luu's linked article puts this better than I could. Drucker continues though:

Most teachers and most organizations concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones. Energy, resources, and time should go instead to making a competent person into a star performer.

Applied to a pool of talent, this seems more useful. Steve Jobs, with no patience for B-players, I'm sure would agree.