The Right Way to Manage Your Career

I think this is one of the big mistakes people make when they manage a career, right? Which is people plan routes, but they don't have a sense of destination, right? Their sense of destination is abstract. To be senior one day, to make millions of dollars one day, whatever, you know, to run something like, sure. So they plan routes like I'm going to do, you know, work at this company for this many years or I'm going to. And it's the same. It's kind of the equivalent of like leaving your house and you see your neighbor packing up their car and you say, where are you going? And they say vacation. You go, oh cool, where are you going? They said vacation. They're like, no, no, no, I know, but where are you going? They said, I told you, vacation. Well, how are you going to get there? And they say, well, I'm going to take 95, I'm going to drive 150 miles a day. So they tell you the route, but they don't know where they're going. And that's how a lot of us manage our careers. We plan routes and then we create back plans for whatever those short term goals are. But the problem is, what if there's roadworks? What if there's some sort of closure? What do you do? You freak out usually, and now your metrics are destroyed and you're panicking, right? I'm the complete opposite. I have no idea what route I'm going to take. But I know that if I'm starting in New York and I want to get to California, that's it. That's all I know. To create a world in which the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired, feel safe wherever they are, and end the day fulfilled by the work that they do. That's my California. Right? And the thing is, I'll start on 95 and I'll try and drive 150 miles a day. That sounds great. But then if there's road works, I'd be like, oh, I'll go this way. And this is a slow road. So people think that I'm off, but they can't see my twisty road. But it's very, very focused. And if somebody comes to me and says I have a plane, I'm like, great, but which direction are you going? And I think that's one of the problems, which is we jump at jobs that offer us more money, but we don't know if actually fulfills our values and helps us advance our cause. And so then we end up somewhere where we're highly paid and unhappy, then it's not worth it.