A boss produces a follower. A leader produces a better leader

Got frustrated with my boss…I resigned.

Got bored with my boss…I resigned.

Most of my resignations brought me to a leader and not to a new boss.

Consequently, I learned more and enjoyed my work life even more.

The equation must be: work = enjoyment.

Put a terrible boss into the picture and the result will be: work = suffering.

To work and to suffer at the same time, because of a terrible boss, are too much burden to bear for young professional like you.

To work is to enjoy.

Some are saying not to quit your job if the ONLY reason is your boss. Blah, blah, blah…

ONLY? Those who are giving this kind of advice are missing the point – big time!

Because of terrible bosses, some careers are destroyed.

If it is really about your terrible boss and there are no more remedies left (for you to switch the situation) then it is time to call it quit.

Don’t feel guilty. There are really terrible bosses.

A Gallup poll of one million people showed the no. 1 reason that people quit jobs was their boss.

This is a no-brainer thing. Life is too short to work with a terrible boss.

If you will find a leader you are blessed. Work hard. Aim to be a leader someday.

Here’s a big difference:

A boss produces a follower.

A leader produces a better leader.

 

Image: http://www.sportscoachingbrain.com

 

10 Indispensable Quotes from Seth Godin’s Linchpin

A linchpin, as Seth describes it, is somebody in an organization who is indispensable, who cannot be replaced – her role is far too unique and valuable.

1. ‘The linchpins among us are not the ones born with a magical talent. No, they are people who have decided that a new kind of work is important, and trained themselves to do it.’
2. ‘Every successful organization has at least one linchpin.’
3. ‘Linchpins are indispensable, the driving force of our future.’
4. ‘The only way to get what you’re worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people deeply care about.’
5. ‘Leading is a skill, not a gift. You’re not born with it, you learn how…While schools provide outlets for natural-born leaders, they don’t teach it.’
6. ‘Expertise gives you enough insight to reinvent what everyone else assumes is the truth.’
7. ‘Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.’
8. ‘Linchpins leverage something internal, not external, to create a position of power and value.’
9. ‘The only way to be indispensable is to be different.’
10. ‘There are no longer any great jobs where someone else tells you precisely what to do.’

Cheridel Alejandrino is a linchpin.

 

Life’s Too Short for the Wrong Job

Feeling lost in your career is never a bad thing. Rather, it is your call to action. It is telling you that there is something missing in your life and you deserve a chance to find it. And you will find it!

A career has many doors – and it is up to us to open them. – Dr. Marla Gottschalk

Have the courage to leave something behind – your fear. You need to take stock of yourself and take a strange route if you need to. Keep on experimenting with your career while you’re still young.

Take more risks in your 20s and early 30s. – Steve Tappin

Move and do something.

Life’s too short for the wrong job. -jobsintown.de

Photo: preserve.historicithaca.org

Don’t Follow Your Passion: Why “Follow your passion” is Bad Advice According to Cal Newport (Book Review)

I have been seeing this Cal Newport’s book every time I visit a bookstore. I have thought of buying it many times but I always ended up buying other books instead.

The reason: I am a bit disturbed with the ideas being presented in this book.

However, two weeks ago, I finally decided to buy it.

“Follow you passion” is a Bad Advice

As a long time subscriber of “follow your passion” advice I have the reason to feel disturbed with this book.

“So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love” by Cal Newport (2012) is a book about counterintuitive career advice and debunking of the famous “follow your passion” advice.

To discover the reality how people end up loving what they do, Newport spent considerable time in interviewing the organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, freelance computer programmers, and others who admitted to deriving satisfaction from their work. This made him uncovered the strategies they used and the pitfalls they avoided in developing their careers.

Newport argues that passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. Thus, “follow your passion” advice is dangerously destructive as it often leads people to unproductive soul searching, endless second-guessing, and chronic job-hopping.

Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is to follow your passion.

Newport suggests that one should focus on becoming really good at something valuable because if you become good at something you will find the passion you are looking for. This means, don’t follow your passion, instead love your work. Keep on practicing your skills. Be so good they can’t ignore you. This is the only way you can develop your career capital.

Career capital, according to Newport, is your rare and valuable work related skills. The currency you use to obtain ideal work.

Passion Mindset Vs. Craftsman Mindset

One should have a craftsman mindset instead of a passion mindset. Here, Newport explains in length why he dislikes the passion mindset:

Whereas the craftsman mindset focuses on what you can offer to the world, the passion mindset focuses on what the world can offer you. This mindset is how most people approach their working lives.

There are two reasons why I dislike the passion mindset (that is, two reasons beyond the fact that…it’s based on a false premise). First, when you focus only on what your work offers you, it makes you hyperaware of what you don’t like about it., leading to chronic unhappiness. This is especially true for entry-level positions, which, by definition, are not going to be filled with challenging projects and autonomy – these come later. When you enter the working world with the passion mindset, the annoying tasks you’re assigned or the frustrations of corporate bureaucracy can become too much to handle.

Second, and more serious, the deep questions that driving the passion mindset – ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What do I truly Love?’ – are essential impossible to confirm. ‘Is this who I really am?’ ‘Do I love this?’ rarely reduce to clear yes-or-no responses. In others words, the passion mindset is almost guaranteed to keep you perpetually unhappy and confused…

4 Rules On Building Your Career

Newport suggests 4 counterintuitive rules on building a successful career:

• Rule #1: Don’t Follow Your Passion
• Rule #2: Be So Good They Can/t Ignore You
• Rule #3: Turn Down a Promotion
• Rule #4: Think Small, Act Big

Final Notes

It is almost a given that time will come when your existing belief will be challenged by a new idea. This is what I have experienced in reading this Newport’s relevant book. Indeed, we must consider our point of view as temporary,

Here’s a final quote from the book that I want to leave with you:

Don’t obsess over your true calling. Instead, master rare and valuable skills. Once you build up the career capital that these skills generate, invest it wisely. Use it to acquire control over what you do and how you do it, and to identify and act on a life-changing mission. This philosophy is less sexy than the fantasy of dropping everything to go live among the monks in the mountains, but it’s also a philosophy that has been shown time and again to actually work.

Be so good they can’t ignore you.

An unsolicited advice for the new graduates (from someone who graduated a decade ago)

 It was year 2003, when I graduated from the university. Like you, it was the moment that my parents and I have waited to happen. Indeed, it was a moment of euphoria – but at the same time a moment of anxiety.

I understand if you feel anxious when the graduation fun had ended and went home for sleep. You are anxious because, like what your terror professors have always said “tomorrow you will experience the real world”. Those words reverberated on your mind – and you end up wide awake until dawn.

What the hell does “real world” means? What’s in there that makes you nervous?

Here are my unsolicited advice – from someone who graduated a decade ago. Since I graduated, the world has dramatically changed. During my ten years of journey in the so called real world, I was able to collect some worthwhile lessons that might guide you as you start your own outside the walls of your university.

1. Dream big but learn to appreciate the small blessings. Forget what your arrogant professor has told you that you must not accept a job offer that will not pay you a huge sum of money (yabang niya lang ‘yun). No employer will pay you a six-digit salary as a new graduate whose learning came from textbooks. Aim for the experience first and do not go after the external rewards – yet. Learn from these experiences as much as you can. Know your colleagues – interact and learn from them. Remember, you are just in the first few steps of your long worthwhile journey. Appreciating small blessings doesn’t mean abandoning your big dreams.
2. Grow and nurture your network. As you continue in your first job, start expanding and nurturing your network. Be likeable in your workplace. However, do not limit your networking within your office. Go out and attend various activities that interest you – whether it is related to your job or about your hobbies or personal interests. Introduce yourself to strangers in those events. Get their mobile numbers, email addresses or anything that may reconnect you with them. Maintain your communication with those individuals that fascinated you. Breakout opportunities usually come to those who are visible, believable and likeable!
3. Read. Keep learning new things every day. Don’t abandon your reading habits. Read newly published books related to your job or to your interests. This time you have all the freedom to choose what books you want to read and when to finish them. By reading, you will encounter new ideas that might trigger you to think and new concepts that might excite you. If your interest is to start up a business, you may explore Richard Branson, Chris Guillebeau and Guy Kawasaki.
4. “Self” Review. Oops! Don’t worry there is no exam. By this, I mean is to always find time to reflect. After 1 year or so on your first job, try to ask yourself the following questions: “am I still learning?”, “am I still excited to go to the office?”, “Would I still want to spend my next two years or so in this company or job?”, “What do I want to do after I resign?”, “What new learning did I acquire?”, “What are the new things that make me excited?”. If you don’t reflect, you just merely exist. You are not living.
5. If career is a road, then the “wrong way” sign is not applicable and “swerving” is highly advisable. I am a Secondary School Teacher by profession; however, I have spent 7 years of my life in the mining industry in the area of stakeholder relations. Subsequently, I resigned from my job and started my own training & consultancy firm (http://grupposocial.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/meet-our-team-at-grupposocial/). Others thought of me as crazy for leaving from my relatively high-paying job.  Find what will make you happy. Take risks. “If you are not willing to risk the usual you will have to settle for the ordinary.” (Jim Rohn). As you gain more experience; a wider network and a new set of skills, you don’t already deserve the ordinary.

I believe the “real world” is exciting and full of opportunities -contrary to what your professors have said. There is nothing scary in your world now! Find your niche in this “real world” and move.

You are lucky that you graduated in this period where many of the tools that you can use to succeed and serve others are coming to you for free; that you can connect easily to a lot of useful materials; that you can explore the ideas of different individuals around the globe that can inspire you to create your own.

Congratulations! The real world is excited about you!