Do the Easy Things Really Well
Earn larger responsibilities by executing small assignments with urgency and care
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
New professionals are rarely trusted immediately with important clients, complex models, or consequential decisions. Their first opportunity is therefore to demonstrate reliability through small, low-risk assignments. The method is to treat each basic request as evidence: understand what is needed, act quickly, execute accurately, and close the loop without creating extra supervision. Repeated success lowers the perceived risk of assigning larger tasks. This is not an argument for remaining in administrative work; it is a trust-building sequence in which dependable handling of simple responsibilities earns access to more complex ones. The mechanism works because managers can observe responsiveness, attention to detail, ownership, and judgment long before a junior employee has enough experience to display advanced technical mastery.
Origin
Jose Minaya traced this rule to his first Wall Street role, where he built credibility by urgently handling basic requests such as making copies or booking a client restaurant before expecting major assignments.
Core principles
- 01Small tasks are early evidence of professional reliability
- 02Urgency and accuracy build trust before expertise can
- 03No assignment is beneath someone who is still establishing credibility
- 04Consistent execution earns access to larger responsibilities
- 05Ambition should not outrun demonstrated dependability
How to run it
- 1
Accept the available task
Take responsibility for useful work even when it is basic or unglamorous. Treat it as an opportunity to establish a performance record.
Pro tip Respond with clear ownership rather than reluctant compliance.
Watch out Do not confuse humility with accepting unethical or persistently exploitative treatment.
- 2
Clarify the result
Confirm the expected output, timing, and any constraints before acting. Keep clarification proportional to the task.
Pro tip Repeat the key requirement and deadline in one sentence.
Watch out Overcomplicating a simple request creates more work for the requester.
- 3
Execute with urgency
Complete the assignment promptly and accurately. Resolve predictable details instead of returning every minor question to the manager.
Pro tip Check the finished result once from the recipient's perspective.
Watch out Speed without accuracy damages trust rather than building it.
- 4
Close the loop
Tell the requester when the work is complete and provide any information needed to use it. Make ownership visible without seeking excessive praise.
Pro tip Use a concise completion message that includes the result and any relevant caveat.
Watch out An unreported completion can leave others assuming the task is still open.
- 5
Convert trust into growth
After establishing consistency, seek assignments that require more judgment and skill. Continue applying the same reliability standard as responsibility increases.
Pro tip Ask for a slightly harder adjacent task rather than demanding a dramatic promotion in scope.
Watch out Remaining indefinitely in low-value tasks can stall development.
In the wild
As a new graduate, Minaya was not going to receive a major client or model. When asked to make copies, he ran to do them; when asked to book a restaurant for a client dinner, he took ownership. Those small tasks gave colleagues an immediate way to judge his reliability.
→ Consistent execution created the trust required for larger professional opportunities.
A new analyst receives a basic request to prepare and verify meeting materials. The analyst confirms the deadline, checks every document, organizes the package for immediate use, and reports completion. After several dependable deliveries, the manager assigns the analyst part of the underlying research.
→ A low-risk assignment becomes a stepping stone to substantive work.
Common mistakes
Acting above basic work
Rejecting small assignments removes the easiest available evidence that a newcomer can be trusted.
Delivering quickly but carelessly
Fast completion does not build credibility when someone else must correct the result.
Staying small forever
Basic execution should establish trust and lead toward greater skill and responsibility, not become a permanent ceiling.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for graduates, interns, career changers, and new team members who have not yet built an internal reputation.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a permanent career strategy if reliable execution never progresses into learning, judgment, and higher-value responsibility.
From the transcript
“do do the easy things really well?”
“if someone said I need copies, I ran and did copies.”
“do the little things really really well?”
From the episode
BNY's Jose Minaya on How AI Is Transforming Asset Management
Jose Minaya