Sorry, Your Career Won’t Unfold The Way They Do In Business Books

Here's what books won't tell you about career growth

Sorry, Your Career Won’t Unfold The Way They Do In Business Books

Photo by Nong V on Unsplash

I used to be a business book junky.

I followed advice from business gurus like an obedient servant and hoped to emulate the author’s path to success and make millions.

I outworked the competition, lived well below my means, and I made sure I was the first one in the office to turn on the coffee pot.

The strategy worked for a while. I walked around like the fresh prince of the CRE industry as my firm handed me awards for my hard work.  

Then things changed.

Turns out positive mindsets don’t protect your business during pandemics.

I’m having a fantastic year, but I didn’t get to this spot following the conventional career path cited in business books.

I don’t even read them anymore.  

Here’s what business books won’t tell you.

You’ll do odd jobs to get through lean times

I DoorDashed to pay rent.

Instacart for the grocery deals.

Took questionable real estate gigs for other everything else.

Welcome to my working life at 25 years old.

That’s the great irony behind corporate America. You need experience if you want better titles and clients, but you can’t get experience without the titles and clients.

Be prepared to take odd jobs till you catch a break.

You’re not alone. I wrote a LinkedIn post about how I scrounged to pay for necessities, and the post went viral. The number of people who DM’d me to talk about their dirty work stories was astounding. All of them were successful people.

I’m more proud of everything I did at 25 than anything I’ve accomplished since.

Why? Because I proved to myself that I can get through anything.

Never be ashamed of scrapping, scrounging, and hustling to pay the rent.

The dawn will come.

 You gotta do what you gotta do.

Your values won’t come overnight

Your values are you.

Freedom, creativity, security, experiences, friends, family.

I didn’t give my values much thought in my early twenties. I thought success equaled money and everything else flowed from there.

The epiphany didn’t come till I was 27.

By that time, I had met enough crusty white guys to understand what they had to give up in return for success.

Their work ordered them to wear a suit every day. Their success required their freedom; to smooch with people they don’t like at parties they don’t want to go to. The long hours asked them to miss time with friends and family.

Many on their 3rd or 4th marriages. Balancing the stress of pissed-off clients and the mania of a boss that they’ve quietly hated for 20 years.

Seneca once wrote that “Slavery dwells beneath marble and gold.” 

He’s saying that it’s entirely possible to become trapped in a prison of your own making.

Values are your protection against such a fate.

How do you pinpoint your values? Well, where do you feel like your most authentic self?

Is it when you're writing? Talking to clients? With your friends? When you’re learning?

Observe yourself for a while and trust your actions will tell you something about your values.

Just know you may have a tough decision to make once they’re nailed down.

Be prepared to eat shit for at least 2 years

My friend Garrett has a saying, “All you need are the 3 E’s”

Energy, Effort, Enthusiasm.

Even with your values pinned down, odds are you will start your career with a less than flattering position.

Cold calling 129 truck drivers to get them to carry loads of baby diapers like my friend Chris.

Flopping dough at a pizza shop till 1 AM like my friend Cody.

Or writing about sappy relationships just because they get a shit ton of views (me).

Everyone eats shit.

The difference between good and great are Garrett’s 3 E’s. Why? Because most people complain or quit before they get to the position they really wanted.

In these first few years, business leaders are looking at one thing above all else: Your attitude. Or the 3 E’s.

What will you do?

Will you show up to your first-year cold-calling truck drivers with disappointment or with a stubborn smile across your face?

Will you become the best dough flopper in the kitchen or will you half-ass the process?

Will you complain for the first 2 years? Or bring the 3 E’s?  

Everything you do ultimately prepares you for leadership

I stopped reading business books because they focus way too much on “self-improvement.”

They teach you how to be productive, but now how to be productive with others. They teach you how to influence, but forget empathy and candor. They teach you how to win, but not how to lead others to victory.

They’re missing the one thing corporate leaders desperately need: leadership—One’s ability to not only complete an assignment but how to instruct a room full of annoyed millennials on how to complete an assignment.

If you’re like me, you’re likely just now moving into a leadership role. Or maybe new hires are coming to you for advice.

How should you lead them?

Tell your story.

How did you push through lean times?

How did you come up with your values?

What did you do during the dog days flopping dough when all you wanted to do was quit?

You’re a leader now, which means you’re a dealer in hope. No one wants to live in a world without hope.

Tell them about your unique career path and you will inspire hope.