Needle, Meet Haystack

Oh my gosh, you guys.  I love Batman.  I mean, he’s the Dark Knight Detective, with all those wonderful toys and that gravely, makes-the-devil-poop-himself voice.  Plus, he’s the ultimate expert on everything.  And when he doesn’t feel like being Batman, he can be a multi-billionaire (at least) and travel around the world, doing multi-billionaire activities.  So I think it’s safe to say that Batman is pretty rad.

Of course, he had to watch his parents get murdered in front of him in an alley (called “Crime Alley,” which was a pretty big tip-off if you ask me) before he devoted himself to a lifelong pursuit of justice against evildoers, so that’s a top contender on anyone’s “Reasons To Not Be Batman” list.  Another item that would be on that list is the investment that Bruce Wayne made to become the Caped Crusader.

According to a study that I can’t believe people actually paid money for, it would take someone 20 years in the real world to become Batman.  In addition to a more diverse and difficult training regime than that of a decathlete and a Michael Phelps-ian diet, there’s the need for consistent education and the mastery of (or at least high competency at) scores of different skills.  So there’s a high opportunity cost to becoming Batman.

When you analyze his motivations, Batman was originally created by Bruce Wayne with the specific purpose of avenging the deaths of his parents.  So his goal was essentially to extract revenge upon the mugger who killed them – Joe Chill in the comics, Jack Napier in the Tim Burton movies.  In both cases, Batman did avenge his parents by disposing of (but not killing) their murderer.  So, for all intents and purposes, Bruce Wayne could give up being Batman now that he had accomplished his original goal.  Instead, he escalated it.

His new mission became something along the lines of, “Protect the citizens of Gotham City and fight crime,” which, while admittedly generic, allows him to continue being Batman.  And why shouldn’t he?  While it might shorten his lifespan, he has judged that this is an acceptable sacrifice, predicated on the 20 (estimated) years of preparation.  The opportunity cost of the training is still higher than the cost of continuing to be Batman (see The Dark Knight for a better explanation).

Batman’s goal-setting is indicative of a pattern that you can apply to your own life.  Many people spend months, if not years, training themselves to be proficient at a specific professional competency through college, trade school, certification classes, seminars, apprenticeships and so on.  And yet, many of these abilities are not fully cultivated; people move on to another field, quit their position altogether, or only obtain the skills to accomplish one thing, then promptly forget them.

Batman punches people who do that in the face.

Instead, take the skills and education that you’ve been developing and apply them to your new career path.  Customer service can be applied to dealing with co-worker conflicts.  Database management can be used to create a more efficient task management system.  Plumbing can be used to fix the leaky faucet in the break room.  And so on.

Additionally, Batman teaches us that once we accomplish a long-term goal, we should not rest on our laurels and become inefficient.  One should create a new goal that builds off of the last one to stay motivated and keep working effectively.  Although it doesn’t have to be as lofty and almost impossible as a war on crime itself, building new goals on top of each other is a good way to continue to develop personally and professionally.

So the next time you find yourself asking what to do now that you’ve completed another long-term goal, just ask this question: What Would Batman Do?