Read on...
Cal Newport, this book, suggests that it should be a person's talent and skill - and not necessarily their passion - that determines their career path. Newport, contends that trying to find what drives us, instead of focusing on areas in which we naturally excel, is ultimately harmful and frustrating to job seekers.
The title is a direct quote from comedian Steve Martin who, when once asked why he was successful in his career, immediately replied: "Be so good they can't ignore you" and that's the main basis for Newport's book. Skill and ability trump passion.
Inspired by former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' famous Stanford University commencement speech in which Jobs urges idealistic grads to chase their dreams, Newport takes issue with that advice, claiming that not only is this advice Pollyannish, but that Jobs himself never followed his own advice.
From there, Newport presents compelling scientific and contemporary case study evidence that the key to one's career success is to find out what you do well, where you have built up your 'career capital,' and then to put all of your efforts into that direction.
After having read the book page by page, I, hereby, list down 23 earnest lessons from this awesome book.
These are the examples that stuck with me.
These learnings are worded and appended in a way that makes it easier for most of us to understand and absorb.
If you are interested in reading about such learning from other all-time best-selling books, you may click here.
For now, if you wish to know about 'So Good They Can't Ignore You', and what I learned from it, here you go...
1/ It's tough to find a profession that matches with a preexisting passion. There are only 4% chances of this.
2/ #Job: a way to pay bills
#Career: path towards increasingly better work.
#Calling: work that's an important part of your life & identity.
3/ Who enjoys what kind of work is completely unpredictable. The more experience one has, the more likely the person is likely to love the work.
4/ The craftsman mindset is about just honing a craft and becoming so good at it that people are automatically pulled towards you. It focuses on anything that you can offer the world, that haven't been done before.
5/ The passion mindset is about focusing on what you want to be, and you keep looking for it. And there is always a confusion around your purpose of existence, which may also keep changing. Since it's tough to reach something which you are not clear about, it leads to frustration and unhappiness.
6/ Three traits that define great work - creativity, impact and control.
7/ To get great work, you must have great skills to offer. So, skills come first, and that dream work later.
8/ You have to force yourself through the work, force the skills to come (and that's the hardest phase because you lack self-belief many times) until they become too valuable to be ignored.
9/ When skills become invaluable, you will have great work, and a great life.
10/ Chasing passion requires courage but may not need skill e.g. I moved from software to book writing. This is dramatic.
11/ Becoming valuable needs honing skills which is tougher. It is agnostic of your work area. You don't have to sweat out to find your passion area. This is less dramatic.
12/ Having said that, if your current work is too negative (w.r.t. people, work, culture) and not just boring, it may still be worth to make a shift.
13/ The difference in strategy that separates the average from the master, is domain agnostic.
14/ If you just show up and work hard, you will soon reach a performance pleatue beyond which the hours won't matter. The improvement is possible only if you do deliberate practice with the aid of an expert person or content.
15/ Deliberate practice is often not enjoyable but pushes you out of the pleatue.
16/ Embrace honest feedback, even if it destroys what was thought as good.
17/ We must embrace for the life of control, but to be able to get that, we need to offer career capital in return. So, put all your eggs in the basket of your passion only after you have become very good at it.
18/ Be so good at what you do that your clients are ready to pay for your work.
19/ Whenever you try to acquire control in your life, you will face resistance from your employer's family, friends and society.
20/ By aiming to make money, you are aiming to be valuable - as long as you don't get greedy.
21/ Most big innovations take a methodical series of little bets about what might be a good direction, learning critical information from lots of little failures and from small but significant wins. These little bets allow them to find unexpected avenues and arrive at extraordinary outcomes.
22/ The important thing about little bits is that their bite size. You try one. It takes a few months at the most. It either succeeds or fails but either way you get important feedback to guide your next steps. This approach is in sharp contrast to the idea of choosing a bold plan for a grand vision.
23/ You are either remarkable or invisible.
Then, you can read the crux of some of the best-selling books ever written.
If you are interested in reading about such learning from other all-time best-selling books, you may click here.
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