RGB
What people don't realize is that professionals are sensational because of the fundamentals.
-Barry Larkin
RGB stands for the primary colors– red, green, and blue that, when combined, can form every other color. You may remember plugging the three colored cords into the back of your TV when connecting a VHS player or video game console. The concept of a few items combining to make infinite items is seen everywhere.
Combinations
For RGB, using additive color mixing, the secondary colors are yellow, cyan, and magenta.
Red + Green = Yellow
Green + Blue = Cyan
Blue + Red = Magenta
Carbon is the fundamental building block of life… at least as we know it. Zooming in, we’re a bunch of atoms combined to make cells to make multi-cellular organisms to make tissues and organ systems, which work together to form complex beings capable of thought, movement, and interaction with the environment. Carbon and other elements combine to make up life.
From a behavioral standpoint, being competent, disciplined, efficient, and prioritizing are core to creating wealth. Having these four traits leads to almost every other desirable trait to be successful. I view them as the RGB of the working world.
If you’re disciplined and prioritize, then you’re reliable. Someone reliable gets done what they say they’re going to do. Other combinations:
Prioritizing + efficiency = productive
Competent + efficient = proficient
Competent + efficient + prioritizing = problem-solving
Competent + prioritizing = strategic
Disciplined + prioritizing = methodical
Strategic + methodical = adaptable
Variations
For primary colors, there are different variations. There’s also CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) and RYB (red, yellow, blue). You can derive all the colors from RGB, CMY, or RYB.
Similarly, you could call the core four (competence, discipline, efficiency, and prioritization) different names and end up with the same output, e.g., replace competent with proficient and disciplined with methodical, and it still works. As long as all the secondary and tertiary values can be derived, you’ll end with the same outputs.
Define your fundamentals and build from there.