6 year anniversary – lessons learned

On the 3rd of December 2012 I have started my first job. The one that you kind of consider being a professional, field related and you would put on your LinkedIn profile so everyone can see you made it.

The time just flies by and I will be clocking my 6 years of professional work soon. There is nothing special about the fact that birthdays, New Years and anniversaries make us to pause for a moment and reflect on the past. My situation is no different.

I am stopping now to look behind my shoulder and see what kind of experience I have gotten and qualities I have gained. Most importantly, what I have learned over the past years.

The point of this post is to timestamp my thoughts publically and come back to them few more years from now to see what has changed over the course. Plus, maybe someone will find it useful for themselves.

Here are the 6 lessons for 6 years

1)     Speak-up

When I joined one of my former employers, some of new colleagues were telling me that there is a man from senior leadership that I truly should avoid. I got a colourful description of stories how he put them on spot, how harsh he is in conversations and that he causes most people to sweat a lot.

Stories indicating above were popping-up quite frequently. The mistake that I made was that I have believed the story before I experienced any of it myself. The nature of the role was such that the leader was not present in the office too often so I got plenty of “how he is” before I met him.

The thing that I learned later was that first half was not true and second half was not as bad. It was just a competitive angle that he took and pushed down people to think beyond their job specs. This is a kind of thinking that everyone preaches but very few practices.

Nevertheless, before I got to that point I withheld myself from sharing my opinions during the wider meetings with him. Usually I was the youngest, junior level and shortest tenured guy.

The thing that I regret was not speaking up on those meetings. Especially when he answered the question that he himself asked because there was a dead silence in the room. The regret was that my thinking in large part was aligned with his thoughts.

Never again. Now, the opinion about a person does not matter much to me. When there is something of merit that I have to say, relevant to the subject and is backed by arguments I just do it. Period.

2)     Always learn

I am a big fan of two gentleman, Warren Buffett, world’s famous investor and his long lasting friend and business partner, Charlie Munger. It is the latter who said that their holding company was so successful because the former is a “learning machine”. I would argue that they both are learning machines.

So do I found this being a very important lesson. You always learn. There are various ways to gain new knowledge and skills. Podcasts, YouTube, books, events, workshops, discussions, lectures and so on. The time when you could have one job for life is long gone. But I find it being a good thing. I changed my job couple of times and learning is part of the equation. You start as a humble fresher and go from there learning from your more experienced colleagues. You and your job evolves.

Learning makes us open to new ideas and keep the juices flowing. This input becomes foundation to create new things and challenge famous “status quo”.

" I constantly see people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of you ." - Charlie Munger

3)     People matter

For a very long time I was a firm believer that good work is enough to move yourself and company forward. I was objecting anyone telling me to network, present and go out there to spread the word about my work.

I thought that those advices were crazy. How I am supposed to tell people about my work. It would sound like bragging and that is the last thing that I would like to happen. Let my work make noise for me.

It is just in last 18 to 24 months I slowly evolved in my understanding that great work is fundamental to any discussion but it is not enough. People that you know at work, off work, people that you meet are as important if not more to the noise made.

Thanks to the people you know you are presented with new opportunities because they know you, they have seen what you are capable of and quite often they would like to work with you. The more people you know the “luckier” you get.

There is a significant caveat. Always come across as a partner. Never as employee or subordinate. Yes, there is a hierarchy and at the end of the day, especially when you both disagree, someone has to make a decision. Approach the discussion as it is your own decision and responsibility as the person who actually makes it. They will appreciate it.

4)     Stay flexible

I was never fixated on job titles, job descriptions or specs. I made a transition between finance and data analytics, which was not easy itself, but got me challenged and kept me going. Flexibility opens up whole hosts of new opportunities.

The biggest flexibility challenge I got when I moved from Poland to UK was to find the right job. I got some background and valid experience but could not make it for some time. I had to go part-time for something to pay my bills. Looking at it from now I find it very formative but as well I could have been more flexible back then.

Flexibility is a broad definition. It includes not only what you do but how you do it as well. Working remotely or working beyond 9-5 is one part. I really like what Jeff Bezos said about work-life harmony and not necessarily balance. Balance suggest two opposite things being on each of the sides. Work and life is a mixed bag.

5)     Take risk and work

What I have found over the years is that I could have taken more risks and go with something bold. New project, new venture and being out there in the public to meet new people. Taking a job that is virtually punching above my weight or starting something new.

Moving to London was such a risk. When I look backwards on the circumstances and the way how I was prepared it make me wonder how I pulled through. I moved from small cottage with no job hunting experience, a bit of work tenure and with a limited usability of English.

That itself was a huge thing. It took me dozen of failures at interviews before I got to the point where I could express myself, my experience and skills. When I meet people nowadays and they ask me if it was worth it, I just say: hell yeah. Not only as a career but as well as life decision. Living in London had a big impact on forming my views on life, career, values, people and business.

There is a great quote from Steve Jobs that fits as a summary of the whole journey so far.

“ You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” - Steve Jobs

When I look backwards it somehow connects. Discipline and work ethics gained in German company helped a lot, advertising experience showed me how to take things from good to great and when the world zig you zag (go against the tide, be yourself). Construction business opened my eyes on different project lifecycle. Financial services so far proved to be extremely competitive and prone to disruption. All areas are connected by extremely smart individuals.

Across all dimensions I got enlighten by power of marketing. Literally, great marketing can move mountains for you. Ads, videos, written content, gifs, animations. Everything can influence ones decision making. It taps into human psyche and perception of the world.

6)     Take responsibility, be accountable

I am a believer that I can control my faith in at least 90%. What comes out of this statement is that I am over sensitive when it comes excuses. There is a thin line between a valid reason and excuse. Valid reason is when you tried to achieve the goal, in various different ways and some things just cannot be done at that time.

When I tried to improve some data quality issue in the existing wider platform I have learned it cannot be done because of x, y or z. But I tried and came up with the different solution. Not as perfect but there is a work around.

Excuse comes when you make an assumption why something cannot be done without even trying to do it, one way or another. You are giving meaningful story of why it cannot be done. It is not you, it is how the things are. And you know it best.

I see it as a delegation of responsibility to someone else. I believe that I am fairly capable guy and sometimes I as well have to say: sorry I f***ed up. I will do this and that to correct the mistake. People make mistakes. That is why we are people and not robots. Get it corrected, work out the plan and move on. It is not easy to come clean and admit things but it is the right thing to do.

While creating this I realized how many more things I have learned during my working experience and how much more it would take to write it all down. It does not matter now. Ultimate six was picked and the rest I will write-up on my 10th year anniversary. There is plenty more to learn and write about. Plan for now is to focus and work. Onwards and upwards.

What are your memorable and valuable experiences? Feel free to share them with us.