Where are you headed?
Outcomes are often predictable.
The first time I ever saw Ken Griffey, Jr. swing at a pitch in person — at a game in Yankee Stadium — I said to my seatmate, “Well, no wonder!” I had seen him bat on t.v. many times, but witnessing the fluidity and unthinkable speed of that swing in person . . . I laughed, it was so absurdly good. With a swing like that, anybody could hit his way into the Hall of Fame. The outcome seemed foreordained, given the input.
As I’ve noted before, Paul Arden wrote: “Nearly all rich and powerful people are not notably talented, educated, charming, or good-looking. They become rich and powerful by wanting to be rich and powerful.” That’s certainly true of Sheldon Adelson. It’s true of Steve Jobs. And if you want to say that Jobs is different, that Jobs is a genius — well, maybe he is. But you probably know somebody who has a mind that’s equally brilliant. But they haven’t been willing to act like Jobs to become rich and powerful like Jobs. If you could train kids to think and act like Jobs, it would be hard for them NOT to become rich and powerful.
Here’s the bigger point: the more I work, and the longer I’m exposed to excellence and its alternatives in the business world, the less surprised I am by most outcomes — for myself or anyone else.
Sure, sometimes the worthy just flat-out hit a run of bad luck. Sometimes the rich and powerful benefit from unbelievably fortunate breaks. If we had assessed Steve Jobs’s career 10 years ago, we wouldn’t be quite so impressed. “Time and chance happeneth to them all.”
But in general, the law of the harvest pertains — you reap what you sow. Or, if you want to think of it like an engineer would, you get the output expected from the inputs.
Now, about you.
You’re in the middle of a career. It’s headed somewhere-or-other right now, and I submit to you that its destination is not random. You won’t become a millionaire or a CEO or a mover in your field — or, for that matter, a contented houseboat-dweller/loafer in the mode of Travis McGee — by surprise.
You don’t have to tell me (though if you want to leave a comment, that’s also welcome), but on this Monday morning, it might be tonic for you to take an honest look at your own inputs and tell yourself where you’re likely headed in your career.
Maybe it’s where you want to go, in which case, let me wish you all good fortune.
But if it’s not where you want to go? Well, today’s as good as any to change tracks.
~
(Photo by xylo_phones, used under a CC-Share Alike license.)
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It’s pretty random that I am finding more and more posts like this today. (or maybe not so random) As I have been thinking through whether or not I need to strike out on my own with what I do best. Business is booming with my contract and freelance work. So much that I am finding that I spend a great deal of time working with freelance clients in the evening than I am spending time with others. It’s a big leap of faith for sure but still something I have been thinking about these last few months of 2008.
How much do you have to give up before you should give in and take the plunge?
Change tracks or where I want to go? Good question.
Glad if this post is helpful, Rusty.
Before you *do* take the plunge, you might like to read the advice of John Scalzi, who’s been making his living as a freelancer (a writer, in his case) for many years. You can get a good summary here. Key piece of advice: don’t quit your day job until it’s *costing* you money to keep it.
“They become rich and powerful by wanting to be rich and powerful.”
It’s called having a nigh need for achievement and power. Honestly, it isn’t something a person can just decide to have, but a part of who they are. I’m told that I am aggressive, that I am this way because I know what I want. I feel I possess these strong needs, and failure tends to make me sick. The question is, and those who find the answer to this are those who are successful, how do you harness this energy and bring about success from it?
CP — I think that some people DO cultivate this attribute, rather than being born with it. But the last point you make is apt: it’s not enough to have the desire, because we all know lots of people who have desire and energy but never figure out how to channel it.