The best advice I have ever got

I love January, it’s a time of reflection, to start a new, to make a change, and let's be honest, it’s usually accompanied by a stronger sense of will and inspiration than say October…

As January comes to a close and new year goals are set, I reflect on a 16-year career (wow I feel old) and how I got here. I am proud and grateful for what I have achieved so far, I have been successful in my estimation, and I attribute it largely to following the advice of people whom I respect, who have walked similar paths to me, or people whose paths I wish to follow on.

The passion and conviction in the advice I received from these individuals validated the truth behind the words. It just hit home and was almost like an “aha” or “duh” moment. Even if I already knew or followed the advice subconsciously, it cemented it in my belief system, which can change.

My hope in writing this article is that it has the same influence on someone else in their career or life pathway, so here it is, the 3 best pieces of advice I ever got...

“Life is 90% perseverance, 10% luck”

I got this advice at the start of my career when I was questioning the worth of my job at the time. I’m grateful to have received it so early on, because since then, it’s got me through the darkest days and the longest nights when hope was but a glimmer.

This one came from someone who lived a rags-to-riches story, a challenging upbringing with few opportunities, but an unbreakable will endure anything en route to their goals and one of the greatest humans I have ever met. This is probably why it stuck with me.

Not much to add here, except for three things, firstly, just stay the course if you truly believe in it, secondly, remember that you can create your own luck (to an extent), and lastly, sometimes life can be 90% luck and 10% perseverance, but don’t count on that.

“Make your immediate boss's life easier and you will always do well in your career”

This piece of advice came after over a decade of working, it’s so obvious when you think of it, but hearing it explicitly made me conscious of it, and helped me to attribute a lot of my success and growth up to that point to reason.

I have been on both the giving and receiving end of this, so I can validate it 100%. And no that doesn’t mean being a “yes-man/woman”, that’s the worst advice and will probably end up with you overwhelmed, burnt out, and taken advantage of. You have to know where to stand your ground!

What I mean (and I believe they meant) by making their lives easier is to be observant, listen to them, understand their pain points, look at the challenges they and the team are facing, look for inefficiencies, and attempt to improve those things, even just a little.

What this does is, is that it adds value, it shows that you give a damn, it shows that you are trying to improve the situation and improve people's lives. Who wouldn’t want to keep you around? You will get spoken positively about in your absence and people will probably like you. So be reliable, be dependable, be loyal… and trust me when the time comes for them to bat for you (be it a raise, a promotion, some bureaucratic kindness, or even just a favor), they are very likely to endorse you.

“We judge others by their actions & we judge ourselves by our intentions“

I got this advice later in my career too and I wish I had gotten it earlier, for the longest time I struggled to understand why people were making certain decisions and judging them unfairly. We tend to evaluate people by what they do and the actions they take, assuming their intentions. It’s quite natural to a lot of us, because it's what we see, but it can be dangerous.

When we take action, we have a relatively deep self-awareness of why we are doing it, and this makes us somewhat forgiving or more empathetic towards ourselves, especially when the intended outcome isn’t realized.

I think this relates beautifully to one of the habits from the book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, which says, "Seek first to understand, then to be understood". So the takeaway here, is that being more empathic and understanding in life will make you a better person, it really will.

To close, I think it's only fitting to quote someone anonymous, whose advice I need to follow more this year and beyond:

“Life is a journey, not a destination. Learn to enjoy the ride”.

What's the best advice you have ever got?