Why Making Hard Choices Could Lead to Your Next Big Break

Are you looking for a miraculous big break that gives you an unexpected gift and changes everything? If so, I’ve got bad news for you.

There is no quick fix, no get-rich scheme and no free ride to that next big step in your career.

My “big breaks” didn’t come through any magical moment, but rather, through significant situations that taught me to embrace the truth: hard is healthy!

As I reflected on my big breaks, I thought of pivotal events that oddly enough accelerated my career. Each experience challenged me in substantial but different ways, requiring me to take “my game” to an entirely different level.

Each of us has or will experience challenges in our life that will force us to make tough decisions. In the heat of the moment, you may be tempted to take the easy way out, but I have found that often the hard choices are the healthiest you can make!

Are you using your challenges effectively to create your big breaks?

Big Break 1: Accept a Challenge

While vacationing in Panama City, Florida before my freshman year of college, I looked through the crowd of beachgoers and made eye contact with this girl. In one look, I knew something was different about her. I introduced myself and asked her out.

After dating through the first quarter of college, I remember comparing my rather unimpressive grade point average with her 4.0. I was perfectly content with being a B student before I met her.

She challenged me, and I stepped up. I took really difficult classes rather than picking the easiest schedule possible, and the hard work paid off when I graduated with honors.

It is easy to take the path of least resistance. But I am really thankful that girl – who later became my wife – challenged me to excel academically. The path I chose was hard, but in the end, it was extremely healthy. I have no doubt that accepting her challenge served as an accelerant to my career.

No matter what you are doing, don’t try to take the easy route. Instead, challenge yourself and experience that incredibly satisfying feeling of achievement.

Big Break 2: Seize an Opportunity

Three years after I joined the workforce, I was still very inexperienced and na?ve. I was working for a high-tech manufacturing company, and I reported directly to the senior vice president, who had very high standards and was quite demanding.

He didn’t just ask me to get my job done. He didn’t just ask me to perform on the north side of the performance curve. He consistently challenged me to think really big and act very bold.

One day, he came to me and offered me an opportunity to step out of the mainstream and build a new business. He told me in no uncertain terms that if I failed, it would set me back as compared to my peers. But if I succeeded, it would mean a step function lift in my career trajectory. At the time, there were many days I thought I had made the wrong decision by accepting his challenge, but in the end it all paid off. I have no doubt that seizing the opportunity offered to me propelled my career.

There were several times that I thought my boss – who ultimately became my mentor, Marcus Harwood – was demanding, but wow did I grow at an amazing rate under his leadership. He believed in me when I didn’t totally believe in myself. I remember living in constant fear that I was one step from a massive failure, but then he would come by and simply say, “I knew you could do it.” My time working for my boss was crazy hard but phenomenally healthy. Confront your doubts and lean into your fears, and enjoy that incredibly satisfying feeling of achievement.

Big Break 3: Embrace Pain as a Path to Gain

Most entrepreneurs will tell you that you can’t experience success until you learn to experience failure. I can tell you from personal experience that failure is extremely painful. Reflecting on 35 years in business, I have failed myself and others many times over the course of my career. Sadly but truthfully it is part of the journey. But I can honestly say without hesitation that the pain led to gain.

I have failed some of my clients, but through a lot of hard work put forth to resolve our challenges, together we have always come out the other side with stronger, more trusting relationships.

In a previous blog, “The Phone Call That Forced Me to Reset My Priorities,” I shared the story of how I failed my wife by letting my work commitments inappropriately disrupt our relationship. But through a lot of hard work, we came out the other side with a stronger, more trusting relationship.

Too many of us encounter a setback, and it totally derails us. Embrace pain, and focus on the lesson learned, and you will find a path to gain. I know pain is hard, but it can be incredibly healthy. Work hard to resolve the performance or relational setbacks in your life and experience that incredibly satisfying feeling of achievement.

What you can take away

Don’t sit around waiting for that big break to come your way. Step forward and create your own big breaks by doing the following:

1. Embrace the fact that hard is healthy! I didn’t want or necessarily like any of the life challenges that came my way. But I embraced them, stepped up to them and owned them. I leveraged them to produce a step function positive change in my life.
2. Seek out challenges in your career! A big break will never come your way if you are managing your career by eliminating all risks. Step away from your neutral space, and own your career path.
3. Accept the fact that growth comes through some degree of pain! We have all heard the phrase “no pain, no gain.” A big break will never come your way if you aren’t pushing yourself well outside your comfort zone or addressing head-on the “failures” that threaten to disrupt your path.

Step up, and lean in. Yes it certainly is scary. Yes it is hard. But taking a step will produce a far greater opportunity for a big break in your career.

Like my mentor told me so often many years ago, “You can do it!”

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About the author: Bob Patton is the EY Americas Vice Chair of Advisory Services. He has extensive experience working with Fortune 500? companies in the consumer products, utilities and high-tech industries, as well as experience working with key public sector organizations. In 2011, Bob was recognized by Consulting? magazine as one of its Top 25 consultants, honored in the category of Excellence in Leadership. In addition to his LinkedIn profile, you can also interact with Bob on his Twitter account @BobPattonEY.

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