Planning your career or your life? 7 advices to get you started.

Every now and then, I have the great opportunity to talk to high school seniors and of course their parents about choosing a career for the “young ones”. Most of the time, the conversation starts with their question about what's the right College / University for the soon to be a student. While the question is a really simple one, the answer is not that simple. Because sometimes the answer is simply “none”.

So while I have the greatest respect for the parents, at some point I stop them half way through their explanations about how they think their kid will become a lawyer, a doctor, a teacher, or whatever job they envision for their offspring. And I turn over to the “subject” and ask him/her a number of questions, that are meant to help with the decision. The exercise I’m taking the future student through, can be simply described as a 7 steps process meant to help him or her understand who he or she wants to be. Not what, but who.

1. Your life is the best product you can work on. Start your product with a plan. Start the plan with a vision.

The best product you get to work on is your own personal life. Once you’re a grown up, you might have the chance to help shape other people’s lives (your kids, etc). But ultimately, that’s going to be their products, not yours. So let’s focus on your product for now.

Any time you start working on something new, a product, a business, you start off with a plan. Same when you start "working" on your life.

And while the plan can contain lots of details (I’m going to college, I’m gonna graduate, get specialised in this and that), that’s not what you’re supposed to plan. College, classes, exams, trainings and all that, are just means by which you might get what’s needed in order to get you where you want to be.

But ask yourself simple questions: where do I want to be 10-20 years from now? How do I envision myself? Don’t focus on means to achieve what you want, but on the actual “features” of your life.

For instance, with the doctor / lawyer examples, I heard many parents or kids talking about that as a direction they want to proceed with. But when I ask them why, most of the times they don’t know. They simply think that the set of skills the kid has, makes him a good candidate for that type of job.

Instead, if the purpose & the vision is clear, you might find that there are many ways in which you can achieve similar results, with less compromises on your end, with more satisfaction in life and with increased dedication over time. Many times, the pursuit of something that doesn't fit the vision is the result of not identifying this vision early enough. And what do you get out of that? A life wasted on wrong paths.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that college is not needed. But without knowing what you want to be, how can you know upfront what tools you need? How can you know what skills and what kind of knowledge you need to master in order to be good at what you want? Do you need to pay 50.000 USD per year to someone who can teach you something that you already know about something you love? Or can you use that money and that time to actually get closer to your dream than through the help of the school? Or maybe it's a specialized knowledge that is a must to become what you want, and then you know what you're heading towards.

2. Don't plan on how to make a living. Plan to make a life.

Most of the time, the reasoning behind the career option is “it’s well paid”. Or “there is a lot of demand” which sometimes translates into “more money”. But you were created as a unique individual (weather you believe in the fact that you were created or not, at least you’re born as a unique individual). So why would you just follow the crowd? Before you decide on a career, think about your life. What do you want from your life? How is the potential career exposing you to the type of challenges and pleasures you expect your life to give you? What kind of people are you going to work with? Think about the entire ecosystem that your career option might take you in. Do you know the “market”? How are the potential customers / vendors / colleagues? Are they the kind of people you want to be working daily? How are your social / intellectual needs going to be taken care of if you go on a specific direction? How is your personal life going to be impacted by choosing a specific industry, or a specific field?

Many questions to answer, but you need to answer them early. The easiest way to answer those questions is to get to know people that are acting in the field you want to be. Want to become an entrepreneur? Get to know a few and try to see their life style, their frustrations, their challenges, etc. The more you know, the more you can identify patterns, and then you can see if that’s what you want. Or, you can learn from their experience and set some expectations when you make your own plans.

Of course, no matter how much you learn from others, your path will most likely be different, but you’ll be better prepared, and you’ll know what kind of compromises you’ll have to make in order to get to your dream “product”. Some might be bearable, others will simply "not be you”. So why waste years of your life going on a path that only makes you unhappy?

3. Always trust your guts. But not just yet.

There is a famous saying that goes like this: “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions”.

So before you can trust your judgement and guts, and take decisions fast, and move on, you need to learn from other’s people decisions as much as possible.
Built yourself a network of people you can trust, people that can act as advisers from time to time. Run your ideas through them & validate your assumptions early. You will still get your share of bed decisions on your own, but use other people’s input to drive your decisions till you have a decent experience to rely on. Then, by all means, put your gut feelings on top of everything else. And act accordingly.

4. Be ready to fail. And start all over. But fail early.

With all the good advices you might get and the experience you might get yourself, you will fail at some point. You will hit the wall hard at some point and you will feel that you hit the bottom. But whatever happens, stand up, brush the dust off you and move on. It’s not going to be the last time you will see failure. Learn to embrace it, learn from the failures and move on.

Next time, if something is meant to fail, make sure it fails early. Think about all the risks and challenges, and address them early. Don’t let the major ones become the show stoppers for you, after you’ve invested a lot in one direction.

5. Stay focused on the prize

Remember that vision we talked about a bit earlier? That’s your prize. Remember why you’ve started the college, or started your practice in that lawyer office. You might get side tracked because of various needs or issues you might have. The road will always be full of bumps of wholes, but you need to stay focus on the target. Not on the road. If the road becomes too bumpy and it will jeopardise your ability to arrive at the destination, then don’t be afraid to change the road.

Always have 1-2 alternative paths planned, and make the switch whenever it’s needed. Don’t get buried into “I’m doing this just till I’m back on track, and then I’ll switch jobs so that I can do what I want”. While you might have to do this at times, make sure you’re back on your path as soon as possible. The more time you spend off-track, the harder is going to be for you to get back later.

6. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.
This is one of my favourite quotes, by T.S. Eliot.

And it reflects what the pursuit for your dream and vision should be. Sometimes, before you learn how to walk, you need to run. Sometimes, you need to take chances above your safety zone. Once you’ve learned to trust your guts, you will start setting high targets for yourself so that you can push your limits and see what you’re up to. Sometimes, the world around you will simply hit you so hard that you don’t even have to test your limits, others will.

But just to be prepared, test your limits and push hard on the pedals from time to time. You might surprise yourself with what you can achieve if your mind is set on the right target.

7. If your life is your product, think about what you’d like your Release Notes to tell the world.

You’ll live a life full of accomplishments, simply by focusing on what’s important for you, and doing things right. But you will touch other people’s lives, you will leave some trails behind you.

If your life is your product, think about your final notes, your release notes, and what would you like to read. What kind of person do you want to see there? What kind of memories you want to create? What kind of legacy you want to leave behind you?

You’re probably too young to even consider this, but along the way, think about the release notes. Start adding to those notes, things that you’re proud of. Help others, make friends, contribute to other’s success and leave something behind you every step along the way. The decisions you take are going to influence others.

While your product, your life, might seem to be all about you, it’s not. It’s about all those that you might impact consciously or not. It’s about all the changes you cause in life. While it’s important to stay focus on the prize, as I said earlier, sometimes, to make a difference for someone, to make a change in the world you’re surrounded, takes little time and little effort, and not only you’ll get back on your track quickly, but you might get some boost that you’ll not even know where it comes from. It’s the way the universe will compensate for the short break you took from achieving your goals :).