Early Career Conversations, Don't Aim for Success, & Quitting Frameworks
Sunday Reset: #4
👋 Welcome to this week’s Sunday Reset – where I provide you with 1 quote, 1 idea, & 1 article to either end your current week or start your upcoming week with something new.
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This week’s reset:
Quote: Don’t aim for success.
Idea: Why you should quit.
Article: Early career conversations.
🚨 One quote:
Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it.
For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself.
— Viktor E. Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning
Key takeaway: Dedicate yourself to the process of building something else, and success will come as a by-product.
💡 One idea
Want guaranteed results? Quit.
Ok, that is a bit simplistic, but hear me out.
We’re taught from a young age, not to quit.
“Never give up no matter how hard the situation is”
“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.”
“Not quitting builds willpower, perserverance, and determination”
I do believe in some parts of this.
I believe that we should not indulge in instant gratification, so if quitting leads to instant gratification, you should not quit.
I believe that we should work hard, even at times when we don’t feel like it.
However, there are times, especially when suffering from the sunk cost fallacy, when quitting is the right decision.
In April, I wrote a post on How the Sunk Cost Fallacy is Ruining Our Lives. TL:DR: The sunk cost fallacy convinces you to continue to sink time, money, or other resources into something, even though it may not be worth it.
The problem is: how do you identify these situations when you should quit?
There isn’t a right answer to this, every scenario is completely different, but there are frameworks that can be applied to different situations.
Seth Godin uses this framework in his book, The Dip:
Persistence is overrated; if one doesn't expect long-term success in something (be it a career, relationship, or whatever), it's better to quit immediately than stick with it.
Garry Tan (Managing Partner @ Initialized, a VC firm), also has a framework for career decisions called Learn, Earn or Quit:
Steven Bartlett (Author and Entrepreneur) provides a general quitting framework in his book, Happy Sexy Millionaire, which was summarized below by Ali Abdaal:
If you’re approaching a situation where you believe the long-term benefits aren’t worth the current investment, find a framework to apply to your situation to help determine whether you should stay stuck in, or let go.
Key takeaway: Quitting itself is a skill to be mastered.
🗞 One article
Early career conversations
Like many other recent university graduates, I’ve struggled through thinking out my career path and what I eventually want my end-goal day-to-day to look like.
There is some awesome content online like the video I shared earlier from Garry Tan, but it can get lost in the glut of information on YouTube, blogs, or Substacks providing similar-ish advice.
Consuming this “career advice / personal development” content is a great start, but while reading Andrew Yeung’s Substack post on Early career conversations, I realized actually reaching out and having conversations with more experienced folk is the best approach.
I’m lucky enough to have reached out to a couple of amazing people who have really impacted my young career. Without the conversations I’ve had with them, I’m not sure where I’d be focusing my trajectory at this point.
In the post, Andrew shares 5 takeaways from the conversations he’s had with students and recent grads:
Push and pull forces (my favourite)
Are you being pushed by others or pulled by yourself to work/do something?
Management consulting and product management
Slow is smooth
Careers aren’t a race. Build slowly and enjoy the journey.
Good vs great questions
When seeking advice — ask specific, actionable questions.
Reading books
Blogs, videos, and podcasts are easy to consume — but books are where the timeless knowledge is.
This is great information to get started with. However, on top of all of this — I want to use this to encourage you to have your own career conversations.
Send a LinkedIn message to that guy who works at that really cool company you heard about.
Cold email that startup founder.
If you don’t know of anyone — then join a community like The Commons to find like-minded people to reach out to.
If you need somewhere to start, I’m happy to chat — book a time with me here (even to just bounce ideas off one another 😊).
Thanks for reading this week’s issue of my Sunday Reset.
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Hope to see you again soon 😊,