The Five Buckets of Life
Prioritise knowledge and skills first because no one can take them from you.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 88%
Prompted by a monk who told him 'you cannot pour out for others that which you do not have yourself', Bartlett frames a life and career through five buckets: knowledge, skills, network, reputation and resources. The first two, knowledge and skills, can never be emptied by anyone; the remaining three can be wiped out by a firing or a professional earthquake. Skills are simply applied knowledge, so reading is not enough. The strategic insight is sequencing: when you are young and your buckets are empty, prioritise the two that cannot be taken from you, because once they overflow they fill the other three automatically. He illustrates with a team member who took a big title and salary (reputation and resources) without the underlying knowledge and skills, and was inevitably caught out, versus his own choice to spend three to four years in unglamorous call-centre work that filled his knowledge and skills bucket and let him launch businesses young.
Origin
Bartlett tied the five buckets to a monk he met in New York with Jay Shetty, who told him you cannot pour out for others what you do not have yourself, resolving his dilemma about enriching himself versus saving one life in Africa.
Core principles
- 01You have five buckets: knowledge, skills, network, reputation, and resources.
- 02Knowledge and skills can never be emptied; the other three can vanish overnight.
- 03Skills are just applied knowledge, learned by doing not just reading.
- 04When your first two buckets overflow, they refill the other three.
How to run it
- 1
Name the five buckets
List your knowledge, skills, network, reputation and resources as five distinct stores.
Pro tip Knowledge keeps growing in size as more becomes available, so it never truly fills.
- 2
Separate the permanent from the fragile
Recognise that knowledge and skills can never be emptied, while network, reputation and resources can disappear at any time.
Watch out A great title and paycheck sit in the fragile buckets and can vanish.
- 3
Prioritise knowledge and skills when young
Choose paths that fill the two unemptyable buckets, even over higher pay or status, especially when the buckets are empty.
Pro tip Call-centre or small-startup work often fills these faster than a glamorous title.
- 4
Convert knowledge into skill by doing
Apply what you learn; reading about squats is knowledge, doing them correctly is skill. Skills are applied knowledge.
Pro tip Pick the cheapest environment to fail and learn first-hand.
- 5
Let the first two overflow into the rest
Trust that full knowledge and skills buckets will overflow and refill your network, reputation and resources over time.
Watch out Do not borrow reputation or resources you have not earned with skill; life will catch you out.
In the wild
Bartlett spent three to four years cold-calling people at 9pm to sell artificial grass, windows and kitchens. He could have taken a more glamorous, higher-status job, but this unglamorous work filled his knowledge and skills bucket profoundly, and he credits it as the reason he could launch businesses and do well young.
→ An unglamorous early job became the foundation for launching businesses.
An early team member left to take a big job title and paycheck as CEO of a large company, convincing someone he was capable without having filled his knowledge and skills buckets. It is obvious what happened next: without the underlying knowledge and skills to meet the situation, life caught him out.
→ Borrowed reputation and resources collapsed on an empty skills bucket.
Common mistakes
Chasing title and pay too early
Optimising for reputation and resources before knowledge and skills leaves you unable to meet the situations you take on.
Mistaking knowledge for skill
Reading and knowing is not the same as doing; skill only comes from applying knowledge in practice.
Is it for you?
Best for
Early-career people and first-time founders deciding which job or path to take.
Not ideal for
Established operators whose knowledge and skills buckets are already deep and who now need network or capital.
From the transcript
“Nothing in life can ever empty these two buckets... Your knowledge and your skills.”
“choosing a job at that early age that was focused on my knowledge and skills... is the reason why I was able to launch businesses…”
“you cannot pour out for others that in which you do not have yourself.”
From the episode
Steven Bartlett: 9 Secret Habits of a Multi-Million Dollar Entrepreneur - Diary of a CEO
Steven Bartlett