Are You Working "In" or "On" Your Career?

The book, "The E Myth," played a significant role in helping me understand a vital skill to succeeding in business ownership. I never intended to start my own company. It happened because I saw a big problem nobody was fixing and felt I had to do something about it. Early on, I made all the classic mistakes outlined in this book.The biggest one was working "in" my business too much when I should have been working "on" it.

"In" Versus "On"

When you work "in" your business, you are neck-deep in the day-to-day activities. You are putting out fires, supporting customers, doing the accounting, etc. It feels productive and you are definitely busy, but it doesn't leave time and energy to determine how to stabilize and grow the capabilities of the business. When you work "on" your business, you step back from the day-to-day and construct a strategy for making the business stronger and more capable of doing all the great things you want it to do.

Career Strategy: In + On = Success

In my experience, career success also comes from paying attention to the amount of time we spend working "on" and "in" our careers. When we don't find the right balance, we struggle, or even worse, we have professional set-backs. Here are a few examples of what can occur:

1. Work "in" a job for years, keeping your head down and staying under the radar only to be laid-off without working "on" any new skills that can be leveraged in the current job market.
2. Spending 2 months working "on" your resume while not engaging in a single activity that will actually get you "in" a job.
3. Dreaming of the day you'll get a promotion and/or better job by focusing "on" meeting people who are at that level already, while ignoring the need to build and display key skill sets "in" your chosen field of expertise that are needed for the role you seek.

I could list many more, but you see my point: we're all businesses-of-one. That means, we all need to work both "on" and "in" our careers to get what we want. More importantly, we have to pay attention to the balance so we don't negatively affect our progress.

QUESTION: How do you work both "in" and "on" your career?

I'd love to hear readers own experiences below.

If you want to read more of what I've written, check out my articles on Inc.com.

P.S. - First time reading my posts? Thanks for taking the time to stop by! Not only do I write for Linkedin, but I'm also founder of a popular career advice site, CAREEREALISM,and currently run the career coaching program,CareerHMO. I hope you'll check them both out!

If you enjoyed reading this article, you may also like:

• 10 Things Recruiter Won’t Tell You (But I Will)

• How Four Words Control Your Career Decisions

• Worst LinkedIn Summary Ever

• 10 Reasons Happy People Get More Job Opportunities

• 3 Techniques To Fight Unemployment Stigma

CAREEREALISM’s Founder, J.T. O’Donnell is a nationally syndicated career expert and workplace consultant who helps American workers of all ages find greater professional satisfaction. Her book, CAREEREALISM: The Smart Approach to a Satisfying Career, outlines her highly successful career-coaching methodology. Purchase her e-book of CAREEREALISM for only $9.95 by clicking here !

Image credit: Shutterstock.com