Careering isn’t about working harder or making more money.
It’s the rewarding process of transforming your current self into your ultimate
self. Careerists become the most valuable people in their organizations because
they live according to what’s possible, instead of being confined by what
is reality.
Making your career worth loving is essential because your work demands
so much of you that you must demand every bit as much in return. Here are just
12 of the 100 truths outlined in my book Radical Careering that will
get you on the careering path.
1. Quality of work. Quality of life. Quality of compensation. Pick
one. Is your priority to be a star in your job? Or go home at 5 p.m.? Or have
a wheelbarrow full of stock options? Once you prioritize, your job satisfaction
depends on finding a company with the same priorities. If you’re dedicated
to exceptional performance, but your company is only dedicated to short-term profits,
you and your company do not share the same goals. You’re an artisan in a
widget factory.
2. Aspire to be the dumbest person in the room. Working with smart
people is the single most important criteria for evaluating your current or potential
job. What do you do if you’re surrounded by myopic clients, apathetic coworkers,
or wussy management? Find motivating people to collaborate with, people smarter
than you. Read articles and books by industry stars to expand your point of view.
Plug into people outside your office by attending classes, workshops, and anything
else that will expand your knowledge and skill base.
3. Live in verbs. Action is the only way to come from a place of
strength. Having a meeting about a breakthrough client strategy, or emailing about
plans for a terrific management retreat all means nothing if the idea never comes
alive. Spend less energy talking about what could or should get done and more
on getting it done. Figure out what’s stopping you, then deal with it.
4. You can be comfortable, or outstanding, but not both. What lives
outside your comfort zone? Better results? A more fulfilling career? A more powerful
place in the world? Something bigger than yourself? Once you decide, the question
becomes: Are you willing to go outside your comfort zone to get it? If it’s
true that 90 percent of success is just showing up, the other 10 percent is kicking
yourself in gear to get going. Progress doesn’t happen in the comfort zone.
Sometimes you have to go over the top to get to the other side.
5. Wounds heal. Scars fade. Glory is forever. To kick it into high
gear, you have to be a little unreasonable. Exceptional results don’t happen
within standard parameters. Being in the top percentile in your industry comes
with commensurate effort. Careerists are empowered to make our own decisions about
our future. Being unreasonable is scary, and that’s okay. Only in moving
through the fear can you realize your best self.
6. Portable equity is the only form of job security today. In any
job, you generate two forms of equity: portable equity and trapped equity. Portable
equity is the reputation you earn. People you meet. Skills you learn. Accomplishments
you acquire. Trapped equity is your batting average on the company softball team.
The time you spend unjamming the printer. Those bagels you bring in for the office.
Portable equity moves with you to your next job. Trapped equity stays behind.
Portable equity is all that really matters. Focus on where you’re going
as much as what you’re doing. By investing in yourself, you earn more money
and kudos. And, you earn more control over your career, and more options for your
life. Portable equity is currency, literally and figuratively—it allows
you to do what you love.
7. Results + reputation + network = your market value. In most careers,
income is generated by three things: the work you do, the people you know, and
the brand you’ve created for yourself. Boost these three factors, and not
only will employers get in line to woo you, your current employer will try all
the harder to keep you.
8. Build, don’t maintain. There are two kinds of people: builders
and maintainers. Builders are most comfortable creating, changing, growing, and
developing. Maintainers prefer to preserve the existing state of affairs.
Both personality types are necessary in an organization, but leaders are builders.
If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving back.
9. Expect people to say you can’t make it. Careerists have
high aspirations, and clock-watchers will drag you down. But don’t let anyone
cram you into a smaller, less ambitious reality. When someone says you can’t
do something, learn everything you can from their reasoning. Then tell them to
turn around and get back to darning socks.
10. Jump, and a net will appear. It’s impossible to be successful
when you cling to obsolete situations out of fear. Only when you put yourself
out there wholeheartedly can the best opportunities present themselves. What’s
your lifelong passion? If you’ve done your homework and decided what you
want to do, then clearly and rationally start building your net.
11. Expressing your truest self is the ultimate competitive advantage.
Traditional culture induces mind-numbing homogeneity. Success requires fitting
in. But fitting in is boring, and frankly, beneath you. Being a careerist means
being the biggest, best version of yourself. Never dumb yourself down, or think
less interesting thoughts.
12. Make your memoirs worth reading. A career that makes you fulfilled and proud isn’t the most important piece of your life. But it is an essential
piece. To kill time in an uninspiring job and then one day look back on a lifetime
of meaningless effort is tragic. Leave no part of your life unlived, no opportunity
squandered, no talent wasted, and no aspiration unfulfilled. PE
