What if you could go back and talk to your younger self? What career advice would you give yourself? I have thought about this a lot, probably more than I should have considering I’m only in my mid 30’s. That being said, I have learned a lot in my short time and have picked the brains of many older executives about their regrets, successes, and tips. Who knows what the future will hold, but here is what I think future Ron would tell 23 year old me as I started my career journey.
- You have more time than you think in your career
I was sitting in a room of senior executives and newly minted younger senior leaders recently. One thing became apparent: the senior execs were patient and deliberate in everything they did and said, while the younger ones were fidgety and wanted to move on quickly from things. I had seen this before, but it was so obvious in this setting that we are impatient when we are young and want to take over the world without the experience or perspective to do this. Blind ambition never benefitted anyone, so remember that good things will come if you work hard and take the time to truly develop your skills and breathe.1 extra year of experience when younger has no negative longer term financial or career growth effect on your life, but the potential upside is huge to taking that time to not burn out and to build your base of experience.
- Work is not your life
Every movie or TV show has made it clear to us nobody dies wishing they had worked harder or spent more time away from their families. I have lived every day so far with this in mind. Yes, there are always going to be times you have to work late or early or travel away for a few days. This is part of business, but you will never get back every giggle, every ballgame, or dinners with your loved ones. Looking back, you will NEVER remember any of the reasons you missed events, but you will most certainly remember the events you missed.
- And DO NOT miss your children’s youth
If you are skilled and committed, you will be successful…trust me. Over the likely 30+ years of your career, it really doesn’t matter if you take some time to slow down and just be with your young kids. If you miss that time with them because of trivial things at your work that honestly don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, you never get it back. You only have one time with them as kids before they don’t treat you like you are the most important things in their lives.
- To get ahead, study people, not books
When I was doing my MBA, the professors would always talk about the difference between the EMBA and the MBA. The EMBA essentially was for more experienced executives who didn’t have time to do all of the MBA. They always said the ‘students’ there were so focused on people, leadership, and getting the most out of their organizations vs the business skillsets more typical of an MBA. This made sense at the time, but didn’t truly register until I was really managing organizations, and then I got it. You need the book skills, but you will never reach upper levels until you think of business in terms of people rather than numbers and terminology.
- Getting really good at something is the quickest path to success
Just read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers and you’ll get it. He contends that you needed to spend 10,000 hours on something to become truly expert at it and it’s a pretty solid theory in my opinion. In my career, I spent the first 7 years of my career in sales and was successful but I didn’t care about it at the end of the day. It wasn’t until I got thrown into a more operational role that I truly started to excel and every promotion or career leap from then on has been because I became very good at one aspect of operational capability and I honestly like it. This is my case, but people that truly succeed typically ally have the willpower and more specialized skillsets to truly benefit their employer or clients. And it doesn’t hurt if you like what you are doing.
- 40 is a magical age in business
One thing I have noticed of the senior executives and mentors I have had is that they all made major career leaps to executive levels in their early 40’s. so what does this tell me? First, the next 17 years should be about building my base of experience to be ready for those opportunities when I’m 40ish. But looking deeper, it tells me that when you are younger in the workplace, don’t act like it. If you are competent and have the brains, step up and do whatever you are capable of doing in a mature way as if you were 40. Similarly, when you are an older worker, approach your day with the energy, confidence, and drive of a 40 year old.
- Genuinely listen to the people around you
I am by nature a listener so this one is easy for me, but one thing I have learned is people see through others who aren’t truly listening to them. Some people are quite adept at asking questions, but just for the sake of conversation. They could not care less about you. When you truly listen to someone, ask questions, and engage in their lives, no matter their role in your business or society, people see this and feed off this and you end up with deeper relationships and understandings of your colleagues and connections.
- Don’t compromise what you believe in
If you work somewhere that compromises your personal values, don’t waste the good years of your life. Hurting others financially, emotionally, or physically will never help anyone (including yourself) so get out before you cross a line of no return.
- Remember that people are more than their jobs
You work differently when something is off in your personal life obviously. So why do we assume others don’t act the same? At any one moment, everyone around you is going through any number of things from trivial to serious and never forget that. Whether it’s a break up, financial issues, family problems, or any of a million other things, you never know what’s going on in someone’s life, so before you jump to conclusions about someone’s demeanor or behavior, take some time to try to step into their shoes for a second.
- Diversity makes you and your business stronger (and don’t spend all your time with people like you either)
What happens when you put a group of people who look the same and come from similar backgrounds? You end up with results that match those people. What happens when you add different genders, races, ages, sexual orientations, etc into those groups? You get different points of view, different ideas, and different results. The solution is almost always a better solution when diversity is included in the development.
- Learn about everyone else’s jobs, not just yours
Spend as much time learning your job as you do learning everyone else’s jobs in your company. Not only will this start networking and relationships and building trust with your colleagues, but it will make you a much stronger employee who can see things from more perspectives and not through a single lens.
- Take your biggest risks before you have children
There is never a right time for anything, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when its just you or perhaps you and a partner to take a risk without a little one depending on you. This isn’t to say you cant take risks or adventures with children…on the contrary, some of the greatest adventures you will ever take will be with your children. What this does mean is take that chance on a new company, or overseas opportunity, or put all your eggs in a risky investment before your children come along if you can. These risks are stressful enough, and having children and costs that depend on you just add to that.
- You WILL fail eventually – make sure you learn from it
No one is perfect. Trust me. We all fail at some point. I’d argue we all fail every day in some minor or major way. This is how we learn. Watch a child play with something new and see how they push limits, try new procedures, and sometimes even break the toy. They fail countless times until they get it and never would’ve understood how to get there unless they learned what didn’t work along the way. Learn from your failures and remember if you fail its because you pushed to your limits of your current capabilities and that means you are pushing for greater things. Keep learning and trying and you will get there.
- Nothing goes to the moon
All markets eventually crash. All growth plans eventually fall off. Nothing grows forever, but things falling can be opportunities to capitalize and learn and become stronger too, so don’t discount these experiences either.
Now all you need to do is follow the right path to the future you that you want to be.