I come across the idea of personal outsourcing when I first read The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. In one of the chapters titled How Companies Cope, Friedman wrote that nowadays companies should find their core competence and focus on that. Other things which are not their core competence should be outsourced to gain maximum efficiency. Otherwise, those things may burden them and reduce their competitive advantage.

And how do they find their core competence? Simple: by doing “corporate X-ray” on themselves. They examine themselves and try to figure out whether something is really the unique value only they can offer, or it can be provided by others with more expertise and efficiency. Their core competence then is the unique values that they can deliver better than anyone else.

I think the same idea also applies to personal level. You should find your core competence. What are the unique values you can provide that others cannot? What are the things that you can do better than others ? In what things can you be “the best in the world”? Those should be your core competence and you should focus on them. Anything else should be outsourced to others.

Businessmen often do this kind of thing. They find what their weaknesses are, and then hire people who can do that part better than them. They surround themselves with people who are better than them in certain parts of the job. This way they can focus on their core competence and let other people do the rest.

Of course, personal outsourcing doesn’t always mean that you must hire someone else. You can also do that by asking help from others, collaborating with other people, or use resources provided by others so that you do not need to make them yourself. Whatever way you choose, the idea is very simple: focus on your core competence and outsource the rest.