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Most of the common models in the 'find your career' or 'do work you love' or 'start your business' genres tend to follow something like the Jim Collins Hedgehog model - combine what you love (your interests or passions) with what you're good at (your skills and strengths) and a market need. After these first two steps, emboldened by my initial successes in deploying hard focus, I moved on to the big guns: proof summaries. This is where I forced myself to take each lemma and walk through each step of its proofs—filling in missing steps. I would conclude by writing a detailed summary in my own words. This was staggeringly demanding, but the fact that I had already spent time on easier tasks in the paper built up enough momentum to help push me forward. When you focus only on what your work offers you, it makes you hyper-aware of what you don’t like about it, leading to chronic unhappiness. Auction Market – a less structured market with “many different types of career capital, and each person might generate their own unique collection of this capital” The evidence does not support that most have pre-existing passions within them that are waiting to be discovered. This belief will result in sadness and confusion when the reality of following one’s passion does not come to fruition. Chapter Two: Passion Is Rare
In short, the first rule proposes that believing the perfect job is out there can often lead to confusion and unhappiness when the harsh reality of life hits and we realize that it’s not there. Newport’s solution? Don’t follow your passion. Rule 2) Be so good they can’t ignore you The first is that many of us do not gain something valuable to offer in return for control. Newport argues, and I agree, that we cannot obtain control of our career if we do not have something valuable to offer in return. You hear of hundreds of people quitting their jobs to start new and exciting career adventures and then failing. Why? Well, because they have no value to offer (no career capital) to keep control over their newly found career venture. This chapter of So Good They Can’t Ignore You “questions the validity of the passion hypothesis.” Despite being popular, the passion hypothesis is “wrong and potentially dangerous: Just like pursuing a life of control before you have career capital is destined for failure, so is pursuing a mission before you have the relevant career capital to pursue that mission successfully. That means you need to develop relevant, rare and valuable skills to pursue your mission. Mission requires little bets But you need to be practical and allocate your time and resources in a way that is used in an optimized way.
If you just show up and work hard, you will soon hit a performance plateau beyond which you get any better. Passion is a side effect of mastery: when you get great at something, your interest in that something often grows. In large part, that’s because you develop a stronger sense of autonomy and competence the more that you master a craft. According to Self-Determination Theory (SDT), there are three basic psychological needs that we need to meet to feel motivated at work: Even if anyone wants to keep you at bay due to any reason, they will be unable to do so because talent always shows. It has a way of showing because it is natural and has been worked upon thereby making one truly excellent at their endeavors. Little Bets – the small and achievable projects to explore productive ways to turn a vague mission idea into specific successful endeavors
Winner-Take-All Market – a market with “only one type of career capital available and lots of different people competing for it”Money serves as a “neutral indicator of value, or a way of determining whether or not you have enough career capital to succeed with a pursuit.” When you work to make money or seek evidence of value, you can navigate control and provide value, whether in an entrepreneurial venture or a corporate role. Rule #4: Think Small, Act Big (Or, The Importance Of Mission)
To determine if whether you are in a position that will help apply the Craftsman Mindset and build your Career Capital, Cal Newport lists the following three disqualifiers for your job: The Little Bets strategy is not the only way to be successful in your mission. Instead, this chapter of So Good They Can’t Ignore You argues that you can succeed in your mission when seeking projects that satisfy the Law of Remarkability. The Second Control Trap – “the principle that when you acquire enough career capital to acquire meaningful control over your working life, that’s exactly when you’ve become valuable enough to your current employer that they will try to prevent you from making the change”Identify your capital type. In a winner-take-all market, you know what capital you need to acquire. In an auction market, you have more flexibility. The key is to know when the time is right to become courageous in your career decisions. Chapter 11: Avoiding the Control Traps I feel like your problem is that you’re trying to judge all things in the abstract before you do them. That’s your tragic mistake.”
This chapter of So Good They Can’t Ignore You “argues that a mission chosen before you have relevant career capital is not likely to be sustainable.” To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career. It’s more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. It provides an answer to the question, ‘What should I do with my life.’” The job presents few opportunities to distinguish yourself by developing relevant skills that are rare and valuable. The point at which you have acquired enough career capital to get meaningful control over your working life is exactly the point when you’ve become valuable enough to your current employer that they will try to prevent you from making the change."Missions are powerful because they focus your energy towards a useful goal. This in-turn maximizes your impact on your world, a crucial factor in loving what you do. To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career. It is more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. This is why the author has dedicated the remainder of rule number three to this goal. Chapter 9: The First Control Trap Rule #2 states that “the traits that define great work are rare and valuable. If you want these traits in your own life, you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return.” Chapter Four: The Clarity Of The Craftsman The passion hypothesis is not just wrong, it’s also dangerous. Telling someone to “follow their passion” is not just an act of innocent optimism, but potentially the foundation for a career riddled with confusion and angst.”
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