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People often ask me, “How did you get to do your dream job?”
“I gave it to myself!” I tell them.
But I didn’t just wake up one day as a full time adventurer, podcaster, and business coach.
We often look at people like they are finished products. But we are all working on some part of our selves, even the people who have the type of career success you are looking for.
What we don’t see is the entire progression of lessons, mistakes, failures, false starts and wrong turns that it took someone to get where we see them today.
I’d like to use my own career progression as an example to show you how all those hurdles and non-ideal jobs along the way led me to this dream version of my career at this moment.
Here are some of the jobs that I’ve had (and the skills and lessons I took from each one):
-When I was 14 I started a lawn care business with a fellow speed skater that eventually became an Olympian. We could make more then $25/hour if we ran the whole time while pushing the mower (I learned how to knock on doors and ask people to hire me).
-Then I became a lifeguard for four years. I really sucked as an employee – I made it a game to see how little I could work. (But I learned how to gamify my work and make it fun).
-After college I worked at a series of bike shops as a mechanic and sales person. At first, I just wanted to talk about how awesome bikes were and I didn’t want to do any of the hard work of cleaning up the store and merchandising. (I finally learned how to ask for a big sale and how to pull my weight as an employee)
-Then I became a bike racer. I thought I was the shit (I wasn’t) because I had won a few races and then I wanted all the money and the gear and fame. And then I got taken down a bunch of notches when I could barely finish a race against the best in the world. I settled into a role of road captain and leadout man (I learned that I can be more successful helping other people win).
-My first real job using my bachelors in biology lasted only 5 weeks because I was so focused on trying to move into a more senior position and use my experience that I screwed up my simple tasks and got fired. (I learned that’s its okay to be good at what you are doing even if you think it is beneath your level of “genius”).
-My big break in biology came when I got a job managing a laboratory. They brought me on to replace the outgoing manager. After a few weeks, I perfected the repetitive tasks and got bored. I started to try my hand at everything from selling to redesigning the laboratory to helping out in other departments. I eventually got fired for making too many mistakes in my paperwork, which I hated doing. (But I learned the value of keeping good records, and learned more about what I should really be doing – not detail work, but big picture, income generating conversations and ideas)
-When I was working on my PhD, I wanted to get right to the good stuff like going to Yellowstone and designing big research projects and going on TV to talk about my discoveries. I did get to do some of that, but most of my time I spent in a dark room looking at the electron microscope. I eventually discovered a new species, but it took three years of hard work. (I learned how much background you need to really understand what is good work and what isn’t, and where the cutting edge lies. I finally learned how to teach effectively after three semesters teaching Microbiology 101)
-When I started coaching cyclists I would give them workouts to go do. I quickly learned that helping athletes improve wasn’t as simple as giving the right workout. Dealing with the barriers to success is the most important factor: the right mindset, rest, diet, schedule, motivation, goals, and peers are more important to success. I still use this lesson in my business coaching – knowing the right strategy is only a small part of eventual success.
-As a beginning podcaster, I learned that my skill level was nowhere near as good as the OG’s I listened to regularly. I committed to doing 300 episodes and improving my craft daily. I’ve done about 200, and I still improve with every interview. I’m finally doing something where I can progress and get feedback and launch something new every day. Being creative and improving never gets old.
-When I first started traveling full time four years ago, I let my ex do all the planning because she cared more. Only in the last year did I start planning more elaborate weekend and weeklong trips: Hunting for secret waterfalls in Bali, four days of fasting and vision quest in the wilderness of Montana, setting a world record for volcano climbing, and now a caving, climbing, canoeing, and camping trip for entrepreneurs in my home state of Missouri. I’m finally learning to take the lead and create the experience I want.
So this is proof that you don’t have to be great at anything when you start. In fact, knowing that you will suck will take the pressure off. And for me, finally admitting I was a bad employee opened the door for me to be a good one – for myself.
Notice the twists and turns in your own career. Did you predict that you would up where you are today? In ten years time, I bet your careers has changed more than you can even imagine.
In looking back it is nice to see the lessons and golden nuggets in all kinds of “failures”.
What is your pattern for success?
Take a look at the conditions that have surrounded your great success and fulfilling experiences and the difference between those that didn’t work out. That can be your success blueprint going forward.
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