A whole new mind - Why right brainers will rule the future (Category K)
Author: Dan Pink
Rule 1: There is no plan
You can’t map your full career path. And honestly, there is no set path, but there is a way. Key is to make smart choices.
There are two types of reasons for people’s career choices:
Instrumental reasons, and
Fundamental reasons.
Instrumental reasoning is when you do the work hoping that it will lead to something else whether you enjoy it or not.
Fundamental reasoning is when you do the work because you think it is inherently valuable regardless of what it may lead to.
Most successful people make decisions for fundamental reasons.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them backwards. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your guts, destiny, life, karma, whatever…” - Steve Jobs
“None of this had even a hope of any practical application to my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me” Steve jobs on calligraphy learning as a student.
Rule 2: Think strengths, not weaknesses
Conventional wisdom asks to focus on our weakness points to make sure that they don’t hold us back. But successful people don’t work so much on what they are bad at, they focus on capitalizing on what they are good at.
Identify what you are good at and make *that* insanely great.
Code: Your passion + Your strengths = Your “remarkable”
Find your remarkable. As marketing guru Seth Godin says, “find your purple cow”. Bottom line is, you are not average.
Rule 3: Its not about you, Its about adding value
Its about helping clients, Its about using your strengths and talents in the service of others, Improving your own life by improving life of others -
Code: Your passion + Your strengths + What world needs = Your “mission” Use your strengths, do what you love and do work worth paying for that solves a problem or helps others.
Rule 4: Persistence trumps talent
Yes, talent is important, but talent alone will not get it done. World is filled with talented people who didn’t persist, who gave up … and were passed by people with less talent but with more grit and persistence. So, continuously improve, even small improvements matter, step by step, keep moving forward.
The more intrinsic motivation you have, the more you are likely to persist. The more you persist, the more likely you are to succeed.
Rule 5: Make excellent mistakes
If we learn from our mistakes, then can’t we learn even more from our big (excellent) mistakes (the ones we made by thinking BIG and taking a chance)?
“The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” - Michelangelo.
“If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original” - Sir Ken Robinson.
No pain, No gain; So, TAKE A CHANCE.
Rule 6: Leave an imprint
Towards their older age, most people have questions related to their contribution to the world; And, … most people don’t like their answers.
“Regret for things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable” - Sydney J. Harris.
We are on this planet for very short time … , Why not make a difference? Why not make a contribution? Otherwise, why get out of bed?
“We are about contribution, that’s what our job is …” - Benjamin Zander.
“No matter what your career path looks like … , make a dent in the universe.”