Recently, I’ve been wondering how I should go about navigating my career.
So to get some real perspectives, I asked “successful” people in my network for advice on career navigation and positioning myself for future success.
And I got a lot of good perspectives. Here were some responses:
You’re in a good spot, go network.
You’re young.
Go to a startup.
Stay in venture capital.
Go into product management.
Build hard skills.
All of which were great responses, backed with strong arguments. I left every conversation convinced that the advice I received was the right move. Then I’d receive some different advice and change my mind again.
In the end, all these perspectives were just that. Different perspectives.
Different versions of what success could look like for me and the other person’s point of view on that.
What success looks like per person varies.
“SToP LiStENing To OTher PeOPLe AnD STay TRUe to YourSeLF“
I hate being generic but the above theme does hold some weight. Seeking advice is great for getting perspective. However, its just perspective to help you make a more calculated move. How you pick the right advice to take is subjective.
Sometimes there’s an intuitive pull towards some advice vs others.
Sometimes your intuition is wrong.
Sometimes advice doesn’t have the full context of your situation.
But most of time, based on the advice received, it seems like you just have to:
Pick one direction.
Commit.
Be grateful for the one chose (because grass is always greener on the other side).
Make the mistake firsthand (if it was one).
Recalibrate as needed.
It seems, the worst thing you could do is have no commitment and take no action. That isn’t going to get you anywhere.
Movement is though, whatever you are moving. Just start moving.
One of the biggest benefits of seeking advice is learning from the mistakes of others so you don’t make that same mistake. But, sometimes you have to go out and make the mistake yourself for you to fully believe it and progress.
Yes, I know fire is hot, and you told me not to touch fire, but getting burned is a much more convincing way to truly learn that fire is hot.
