Invincible Career - Claim your power and regain your freedom

“Success is like a lightning bolt. It'll strike you when you least expect it, and you just have to keep the momentum going. You have to strike when the iron is hot. So for me, I just kept striking and striking to polish out the sword that I was making.”

— Michelle Phan

I’m vacationing in Maui this week (and sneaking a little work in). Therefore, it seems appropriate to use a surfing metaphor to explain a phenomenon I’ve observed in people’s professions and careers.

But first, are you ready for something a little upsetting? Business Insider published an illustration of the ages at which you peak at several things in your life. For example:

* Your brain processing power peaks at 18. Great…

* Muscle strength peaks at 25. Oh, joy…

* Women’s salaries peak at 39.

* Men’s salaries peak at 48.

* Good news! Your vocabulary doesn’t peak until 69.

Likewise, you probably know that careers have peaks, too. Some professions have very short time windows for top performance (e.g., athletes). Others can last longer, but they do eventually come to an end (e.g., surgeons).

For example:

* Olympic sprinters peak in their early 20s.

* The average NFL career for a quarterback is three years.

* Commercial airline pilots must retire at 65.

* Surgeons over 60 fall under greater scrutiny.

* Some countries have mandatory retirement ages starting in your 60s.

You’re probably not surprised that blue-collar jobs and other physically demanding professions may have career peaks at younger ages. You might think it’s different for white-collar professionals and they can keep growing in their careers until the end, but that’s not true.

Every profession has a season. Every career has peaks and a lifespan.

Ageism is undoubtedly an issue. I experienced that in Silicon Valley.

But I’m talking about something that seems to happen to most people, regardless of their age and independent of their professions. 

I’ll call it “The Wave” because it reminds me of the experience of surfing.

I lived pretty close to Santa Cruz, CA, for about 13 years. We spent a lot of time on the beaches, and my children and our friends surfed often. My good friend (who worked with me at our startup) was an avid surfer too.

I don’t surf, but I spent time observing them. If you pay attention to surfers, they spend a lot of time sitting on their boards, floating, watching, and waiting for a decent wave. 

Some waves are too small to even bother riding. Most are average and provide a solid ride, but they end soon, and the surfer quickly paddles back to try again. 

However, if they’re lucky, along comes “The Wave.” The one they’ve been dreaming about. 

To get the most out of the experience, they must be bold, aggressive, decisive, and committed. If they’re fearful or hesitate, the moment is lost. 

“Being an aggressive surfer, in the positive sense of aggression, means paddling towards peaks, hunting for waves, and staying engaged and active in the ocean.” (source)

When a wave is fantastic, the ride is better and longer. Surfers hope it will never end, but we all know it will eventually. 

All good things come to an end. 

Your career has waves, too. It’s those moments when you experience accelerated professional momentum. 

* The stars feel aligned.

* You’re crushing it at work.

* Your talent is finally recognized.

* You’re receiving promotion after promotion.

* You land great new jobs with ease.

* Your confidence soars.

* Everyone seems to want more of you and what you can do. 

* You feel you’re on top of the world.

You may be lucky to catch some decent waves in your long-term career. A few people may enjoy an early wave, then flounder and struggle, but make a comeback (or change careers/professions) and have the good fortune to catch a second wave (e.g., Robert Downey Jr.). 

But, most people will get one incredible ride that will determine their future and influence the rest of their lives. Sadly, some people don’t even recognize when it’s happening. They fail to catch that big wave, so, instead, they ride one safe wave slowly until the end.

Others perk up when they realize they are on a wave. But they don’t capitalize on it and ride it as hard as they should. Fear, impostor syndrome, and misplaced loyalty make them put on the brakes. 

This is tragic because once momentum fades, the wave dies down, and careers stagnate. You often never get a second chance. 

So, I’m here to tell you, do not make that mistake. If you’re lucky enough to catch a great wave, you’d better ride it as hard as you can for as long as possible. 

But what do I mean by “riding your wave”? How do you keep the momentum going?

Here are ten steps that can help you make the most of your wave when it happens. I threw in a bonus step at the end, too. 

1. Lean into the momentum

When you feel the positive momentum of your wave — your moment in time — enjoy being a hot commodity. Lean into it and accelerate hard.

Success can become a virtuous cycle. I’m sure you’ve observed this. You may have even heard people refer to someone as “the golden girl” or “the golden boy.”

They can do no wrong. Flaws are overlooked. Everything they do is “amazing.” Everything they touch turns to gold.

When your time comes, and you know you’re riding a good wave, take advantage of it. Push hard on your goals and take bigger chances to achieve even greater things — while it lasts and while you can.

2. Don’t be afraid

"Fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true."— Patrick Swayze

I get it. Velocity can be frightening. Fear of the unknown is real.

When you’re moving up and up on a fast wave, things happen more quickly.

* Your role changes.

* Responsibilities increase.

* Expectations increase.

* You receive more attention.

* People want more of your time.

* Fear of failure grows.

It can be overwhelming. But, you have to overcome the fear and create strategies to manage your stress and anxiety. Get help if you need it.

You must conquer your fear to make the most of your wave because it will end all too soon, and you’ll wish you’d been brave enough to take advantage of it. Regret sucks.

3. Don’t put on the brakes

Some people aren’t necessarily afraid, but they do let up. All too often, I watch people succeed and immediately take their foot off the gas.

* They land a new job and stop networking and planning their next move.

* They publish a book but don’t promote it, do a speaking tour, or host workshops.

* They get promoted and say, “Whew! I made it. Now, I can take a break.”

They let up, relax a little, and coast. I understand the desire to rest and recover a little. They’ve earned it, and you do need a breather after pushing hard to make something happen.

But we live in a world of friction. That momentum eventually slows if you don’t keep driving forward while the wind is at your back.

Believe me, it will stop soon, and eventually, you’ll be facing it. You’d better have enough momentum and drive to push through and keep going. 

4. Kill your impostor syndrome 

Almost all of us suffer from impostor syndrome at some point. I’ve had to deal with it, too, so I wrote about how to overcome it.

When things are going well, and we’re making good progress, we question ourselves. The higher we climb, the more doubt and uncertainty creep in:

* Maybe I just got lucky.

* I’m not as talented as they think I am.

* I’m not as bright as the people around me.

* Everyone is going to find out that I’m in over my head.

* This is too much. I’m going to fail soon!

I’ve watched people lose momentum because of fear and impostor syndrome. They rode successively bigger waves with each promotion and job. They were on track for even better things but began to doubt themselves and missed that next big wave.

Instead, they fell back and took smaller and more minor roles. Each wave faded more and more until their ride was over. Don’t let impostor syndrome rob you of a chance to maximize your potential.

5. Eliminate friction

What’s holding you back? What’s slowing you down? We all have something creating professional friction and risking our career progress.

Get rid of those bad habits. Acquire the skills you need. Do whatever you can to reduce friction and keep the momentum of your wave going as long as possible.

For example, I often share how my fear of public speaking created a lot of friction in my career progress. So, I killed that fear. My career took off after that.

I was promoted five times over five years from a Lead Designer to Manager to Senior Manager to Director to Sr. Director to VP. That was my wave, and I had to ride it hard while it lasted. 

6. Seize opportunities 

“Fortune does favor the bold and you'll never know what you're capable of if you don't try.” ― Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

When you’re riding up to the peak of your career wave, you’ll notice that more opportunities start flowing your way. That’s what I mean by becoming an “opportunity magnet.”

One of my friends was struggling in their career for several years. No matter how hard they worked, they just couldn’t get a promotion.

So, they took control and looked for opportunities outside of the company. It took a few months and several interviews, but they finally landed an executive role with a startup. That was the tipping point.

Now, more opportunities have surfaced. Recruiters ping them almost every day, and an even larger opportunity presented itself.

It was a little scary and risky, but they decided to seize the chance to take on more responsibility than ever before. They landed a new job, which was the most significant role in their life.

7. Take bigger risks 

As my friend did, you have to take bigger risks when you can before it’s too late. This is similar to Retirement Planning 101. The earlier you can put more money into your retirement fund — and invest in higher risk/higher reward opportunities — the bigger the return will be in the end.

And, much like retirement, you don’t want to take your biggest risks in the end when you could lose everything. It’s easier to bounce back from mistakes when younger and riding high on your wave. It’s pretty hard to recover when the wave is over, and you don’t have much wiggle room.

8. Be careful with your loyalty

When an employer treats you well, you should treat them well in return. Work hard and do your best at your job.

But, for most people, staying in a job for too long has diminishing returns. On average, being employed at the same company for over two years will make you earn less over your lifetime — by about 50% or more.

However, you should obviously stick around when things are going well. For example:

* Your career is clearly growing within the company.

* You’re regularly receiving promotions.

* You’re receiving big raises (i.e., way above a cost-of-living increase).

* You’re still acquiring valuable new skills, knowledge, and experience.

But if your progress slows down, don’t wait too long. At one of my employers, we were hiring new employees at a higher base salary than existing employees at the same level. How messed up is that?

Don’t let that happen to you. Take advantage of your career momentum to maximize your growth and earning potential. If your employer isn’t supporting that, a new one will.

9. Build your professional brand

The best time to build your professional brand is when you’re winning. Take advantage of your momentum and push hard to create a visible presence in your industry and online.

Grow your audience while you can. Build a strong professional network when you’re riding high on your wave.

For example, I wish I had pushed harder to build my following on Twitter when I joined in 2007 and was doing a lot of public speaking worldwide. I also wish that I had started this newsletter back then!

If you’re clever, you already know what your next industry might be too (i.e., your 2nd act career). So, now is the time to dial up your visibility, showcase your work and how you think, and start building your new professional brand.

For example, I worked with some people who had a day job in one profession but were writing and building up their next profession a little every week. For example, they were developing a reputation as an author while still riding the wave of their first career.

Then, when the time was right, they caught an even bigger wave to transition to their second career. One person I know is still riding to the crest of this second wave. They haven’t even peaked yet, but it is much, much larger than where their first wave was taking them.

10. Capitalize on your success

“Success begets success. I've been offered a lot of movies now that '30 Rock' has been successful.”— Alec Baldwin

When you’re in the middle of riding your big wave, take advantage of your good fortune. Find ways to extend your success in one arena into opportunities in others.

* Grow your network and connect with more powerful people.

* Become an advisor to startups and small businesses.

* Join the board of a company or two.

* Spin up a consulting business on the side (while people know your name).

* Found your own startup and raise funding.

* Start your own business and leverage your hot professional brand to grow more quickly (while you can).

However, smart people know that what goes up must come down. Good weather doesn’t last forever, and winter will eventually come. Need another metaphor? 🤣

When your success pays off, resist the urge to grow your lifestyle to match. I’ve watched too many people live just within their means (or beyond) because they thought their career wave would keep rising up and up and up. When it slowed or even reversed, they found themselves in financial trouble.

Finally, be careful and don’t overextend yourself. I know that I’ve been coaching you to push hard and ride your wave while it lasts. But, do so within reason. Don’t burn out!

Bonus step: Create a transition plan

All waves end eventually. All of them.

What will you do next? What can you create that will sustain you for the rest of your career?

Use your remaining momentum to create a transition plan that will let you coast to the “finish line.” Find something meaningful to do with your remaining days. Full retirement sucks anyway.

People say that they look forward to leaving work and doing nothing but fishing or golfing every day for the rest of their life. But that’s a bad idea.

People who retire earlier die earlier. We all need purpose in our lives. Frittering away your time with nothing but recreation isn’t a purpose.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” — C. S. Lewis

Reach back and help others. This recommendation is less about momentum — and climbing higher — and more about giving back and feeling fulfillment.

* Successful actors become directors before it’s too late (e.g., Ron Howard, Penny Marshall, Jodie Foster).

* Hot music artists start their own record label (e.g., Jay Z, The Beatles, Dave Grohl.

* World-class athletes know when to hang it up and transition into coaching (e.g., Bill Russell, Martina Navratilova, Mike Ditka). 

* People like me leave the corporate world and advise the next generation of leaders.

When you choose the right wave and ride it well, it sets you up for the rest of your career journey. When you reach the end of that wave, you can intentionally create your own wave that will take you the rest of the way.

That’s what I’m doing, and I’m happy to help you plan how to do it too.

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my more detailed reading of this article🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s precisely what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I’ll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead at work and be happier in your job, but you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.

https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - Explore Your Own Podcast

I’m Larry Cornett, a Freedom Coach who works with you to optimize your career, business, and life. My mission is to help you become a more "Invincible You" so you can live your life on your terms instead of being controlled by someone else's rules. I live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane.

Note: I’m creating a series of courses, live coaching, and a peer community to help guide people on a journey from Employee to Solopreneur. The launch date will be in 2022. If you’ve ever thought about starting your own business at some point in your career, sign up to be notified. See you there!

My guest for this episode is Andrew Shearer. Andrew is a former product management and user experience design leader at eBay, PayPal, HomeAway, and Expedia. He has 24+ years of experience creating and leading high-performance teams.

He now helps founders and technology leaders build and optimize Product teams as founder and principal at BravePath. They provide a range of services, including:

* Recruiting (Executive search, direct hire, contract, and contract-to-hire)

* Consulting (Product strategy, talent assessment, process optimization)

* Coaching (leadership coaching, career change, sounding board)

We talk about:

* His UX and Product Management career journey in Silicon Valley.

* Why he left that world to start his own business.

* Why he founded BravePath.

* How they are very different from typical recruiters and agencies.

* Advice for candidates to help them nail their interviews.

Key points from our conversation

I want to call out a few points from my conversation with Andrew to help you if you’re considering working with a recruiter (or even starting your own business!). He also shared more advice that is helpful for managers, employees, and candidates.

An “Employees First” philosophy

Andrew was quick to give credit to Richard Branson for this quote:

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”― Richard Branson

He’s been fortunate to learn from some really smart leaders to hone the craft of his profession and the art of shipping great tech products. But, they weren’t quite as strong at being good people leaders (e.g., understanding human beings, motivating them, getting the most out of them, etc.).

The reason many companies aren’t achieving their objectives is that the people are miserable. Life is too short to suffer at work. Happy employees are better at what they do and produce better business results in the long run.

A Better Recruiting Model

Recruiting feels broken. I think we’ve all experienced that frustration with the ones who constantly message us on LinkedIn and don’t seem to have a clue about what we really do (e.g., “Why would you think this job is a fit for me???”).

It’s challenging to work with recruiters who haven’t done our jobs before. They don’t understand our world, our roles, and what a successful career path is in our profession and industry.

Andrew and his colleagues come from the operational world of building and running strong Product teams of engineers, product managers, designers, etc. They always cared about the people side, so this transition into creating a recruiting and coaching agency uniquely positions them in the market.

They aren’t your average recruiters, and they don’t work with companies and candidates in the same old ways that other agencies do. They understand product and technology, care about the candidate experience, treat people with respect, and build long-term relationships (e.g., coaching, giving feedback, no ghosting).

Building good relationships is an investment. A candidate today could become one of their clients looking for more talent tomorrow.

Perception is Reality

As a past Product and Design leader, Andrew put a lot of thought into his performance reviews over the years. He has an interesting model for reviewing feedback that an employee receives.

He puts the feedback into a 2x2 matrix to classify it. You obviously need to work on valid, important feedback. But, you still need to work on important feedback that you feel isn’t true about you.

Perception is reality. Whether it is true or not, it will cause problems if you don’t address it. For example, someone could block your promotion if there is a perception that you’re not a good team player and will struggle to manage a team.

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to our entire conversation, and hear more of Andrew’s advice for job candidates in the tech world! 🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s precisely what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I’ll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead at work and be happier in your job, but you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.

https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - How to Be a Guest on a Podcast

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who hosts a private mastermind community for ambitious professionals with weekly challenges, office hours, and 24x7 support. If you’re interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), check out his “Employee to Solopreneur” course (launching in 2022).

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take complete control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Note: I’m creating a series of courses and building a community to help guide people on a journey from employee to solopreneur. The launch date will be in 2022. If you’re interested in learning more, sign up to be notified here. Thanks!

I was catching up with an old friend recently. We’ve supported each other through the many twists and turns of our careers. During the call, she said to me, “It’s time. I’m ready to take a break and move on to my next adventure!”

After decades of hard work and success, she was finally prepared for a significant change. She’d been talking about it for years, but this time she actually quit her job and was ready for something new and very different. 

I remember reaching that point too. For some people, it’s a feeling that gradually builds. A growing sense of frustration, disappointment, and boredom. An itch to make a change. 

For other people, it can happen suddenly. An adverse event at work can trigger a rapid decision to quit and walk away. The proverbial straw breaking the camel’s back. 

No matter how it happens, the feeling is quite normal. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It also doesn’t mean that something is necessarily wrong with your job or employer. 

We are ever-evolving, and phases of life are natural. It’s ok to outgrow a job, employer, or even your profession. In fact, it’s more than “ok.” Sometimes it’s necessary for continued health and fulfillment. 

We’re living longer, and the active years of our professional lives are lasting longer too. If you’re going to be in your career — however you define it — for four or more decades, why should you expect to be doing the same thing that entire time?

You shouldn’t, and you don’t have to.

People sometimes think that I’m opposed to regular 9-5 jobs and that you should avoid corporate employers. But, I think they play a valuable role in your career growth, professional development, and financial security. 

However, I am opposed to staying in a 9-5 job, with a specific employer, or even in a profession, if it no longer meets your needs. For many of us, every experience has an “ideal season” in our lives, and we need to recognize when the time has come to move to bigger and better things. 

I value my corporate experience a great deal. I don’t regret it at all. It prepared me for what I wanted to do next.

Did I love every minute of it? Of course not. I had wonderful experiences, but I also experienced some terrible things that I don’t care to repeat and I now help others avoid. 

But, how do you know when it’s time to move on? Where do you want to go next? What do you want to do? 

What is your ideal overall career journey? Have you created your map to intentionally plan your path to get from where you are today to where you want to end up eventually?

Start your journey with education

Is college necessary for everyone? Of course not. Many successful people never graduated from college.

However, even if you decide that an advanced degree isn’t right for you, continuing your education in some way is always a wise career investment. With all of its online resources, the modern world makes it easier than ever to educate yourself. Books, courses, and mentors are readily available.

Indeed, the value of a traditional college education is increasingly being questioned. Many top employers no longer require a degree. 

Now, for some professions, you can’t get away from a formal degree and other types of certifications and exams to do what you do. For example, my brother is a surgeon who needed a formal degree, intense training, specialization, residency program, etc. I don’t think you’d want a self-taught surgeon operating on you. 😳

If it’s a viable option for you, I still recommend that you pursue an education that takes you out of your hometown. For example, all of my children have college degrees or are currently pursuing them. 

Why? Because I think a college experience changes you in several valuable ways. Some of the benefits are clear (e.g., specific training, earning potential), while others are intangible but incredibly valuable. For example:

* A network that can help you later in life (e.g., jobs, business deals, investment).

* Learning how to learn. 

* Getting outside of your geographic and cultural “bubble.”

* Broadening your horizons. 

* Expanding your worldview. 

* Developing a greater diversity of friendships and relationships.

* An easier and safer step into independence.

The experience of going away to university changes you for the better. Are there exceptions to the rule? Absolutely. I’m talking about data in aggregate across millions of people. It doesn’t look at individuals. 

There are college-educated individuals who are selfish, racist, sexist failures. We all know a few, don’t we?

And, there are individuals who never attended college who are amazing, caring, open-minded, and greatly successful. I know many people like that too. 

However, even with the benefits I listed, a university education will never give you everything you need to succeed in the world. That’s why I think everyone should have a good ol’ traditional job to learn how things actually work. 

Employment shows you the ropes

As I’ve said before, work is your post-graduate education. I value my college experience, but it didn’t even come close to teaching me everything I would need to succeed in the working world. 

People will sometimes ask me if they should jump straight from graduation to starting their own business. It’s quite challenging to take that path, but some people have succeeded quite well without playing the traditional 9-5 game. 

My friend, Anna, is one example. She’s built multiple businesses and consulted for almost all of her entire professional life. I think she had one “regular job” for about a year when she was 15 years old.

However, I know I’m glad that I worked for someone else for many years during my career journey. I learned so much, made mistakes on someone else’s time and dime, and developed lifelong friendships with numerous coworkers. 

Some benefits of corporate experience:

* Learning how to work in the real world. 

* Working on massive products and/or services at scale. 

* Operating with larger budgets than you’d ever experience on your own.

* Learning about other professions and how to collaborate with them.

* Expensive global travel covered by your employer.

* Meeting a more diverse group of people than you might ever meet in your life outside of work. 

* Ongoing professional development (e.g., public speaking). 

* Management and leadership training and experience.

* Working with your potential future business partners.

My father’s generation had one career and usually one employer for their working life. You chose a profession, found a steady job, and stayed with the company until you retired. That’s exactly what he did.

My generation — Gen X — thought we would have one career. That’s what we were told when we entered college. Choosing your major would define your profession, and that would be your career path for life. We found out the hard way that wouldn’t be true.

Jobs have smaller, tighter arcs and life cycles. We’ve all come to see that. Get hired, move up, or move out for a better opportunity to repeat the process. I now recognize that professions have a life cycle as well, although it’s a bigger arc and harder to see at first.

At some point, you need to move up out of a comfortable individual contributor role into a more senior role, and often management and leadership. Otherwise, you are seen as “too old” and relegated to less desirable projects and roles.

Career growth or bust

People will ask me how they can tell when it’s time to move on. My answer? It depends on your career growth with your employer, profession, and relevant industry. 

Managers will often make excuses and tell you that it’s too early to promote you. Or, they’ll tell you that you need to wait your turn or wait years between promotions. 

Even if that’s the company’s policy, they will make exceptions for certain employees and in certain circumstances. I’ve seen it all. 

In my case, with one employer, I was promoted every year that I was there. I’ve seen other people promoted to Vice President with no team. I’ve watched my clients receive promotions outside of the regular cycle. 

I’m not saying that you should expect or demand a promotion every single year. But, if you are clearly performing at the level above you, it had better happen soon. 

Don’t wait too long. If your employer won’t promote you, someone else will when they hire you. 

It makes sense to stay in a job as long as you are still growing and things move up and to the right. Also, you should still be feeling satisfied and fulfilled in your work. 

Some people can be happy if things level off and stay the same. They define themselves outside of work and their career. It’s a paycheck. That’s all, and that’s ok. 

But, if that’s not you and you expect more, you may eventually hit a plateau in your career growth with an employer. You will have either “made it” as a senior executive or missed your window of opportunity (if that’s what you wanted). This “expiration date” varies by industry, but I think we all know it exists.

A few months ago, someone was talking about being turned away by a mentor who told her that she was too old and it was too late for her to pursue the career she had chosen. Yes, it is illegal to discriminate based on age, but good luck proving that.

I think most of us reach a tipping point where we know it’s time to move to a bigger and better opportunity. 

A tipping point in your journey

Visualize a scale balancing the good things about your employment weighed against the negative things about working for someone else. Yes, there are always good and bad things in the mix when you’re an employee.

As long as the scale keeps balancing heavily towards the positive, keep enjoying your profession and working for an employer! But, if that scale starts to tip to the negative side, it’s time to take a hard look at what’s happening. 

Is it only slightly less positive? Can it be rebalanced in your favor?

Is it a 50-50 balance that ends up feeling miserable the longer it goes on? Or, is it tipping more and more to the negative side as your frustration, disappointment, and boredom grow?

There are several factors to consider:

* Compensation - Are you making as much as you should be? (e.g., employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less over their lifetimes).

* Promotions - Are you receiving the promotions you deserve? 

* Job satisfaction - Do you enjoy your work and feel like your job fully leverages your talents?

* Stress - How much stress and anxiety does your work create for you?

* Politics - Does the workplace have negative politics that create even more stress? 

* Coworker relationships - Do you have healthy, productive relationships with your coworkers?

* Your boss - Do you have a good relationship with your manager (e.g., 50% of us have quit a job to escape a bad boss). 

* Company culture - Does the company culture align with who you are? 

* Values and ethics - Do you agree with the company values? Is the company ethical in its treatment of employees and customers?

* Ageism, sexism, racism, etc. - Is your workplace free of “isms”?

* Professional growth - Do you have opportunities to learn, grow, and advance your career inside the company? 

* Skills and knowledge - Are you still acquiring new skills and knowledge?

* Industry relevance - Does your work feel relevant in the broader industry? Are the products and services still relevant? Is the company respected? 

* Future of the company - What does the future hold? Will the company survive and thrive, or is it struggling? 

* Professional brand - Is working at the company good for your professional brand?

* Positioning for next move - How well does your job position you for where you want to go next?

If you evaluate all of these positive and negative factors and discover that you’re no longer satisfied with the balance, it might be time to move on to a better job. Or, it might be time to shake things up entirely if you’ve reached the “end of the season” for your profession.

It wasn’t that long ago that I felt like I was reckless giving up my 23-year tech career to build something new and different for my next career move. Looking back, I realize that it was time. It was time for something that was a better fit for my stage of life, dreams, long-term goals, and desired lifestyle.

I have a few clients going through a similar process. At first, they say, “I can’t imagine leaving my current profession. It’s what I’ve always done!”

But, once they realize that they can now choose to do something entirely new with their career, they light up like they’ve been given a gift. They stop defining themselves by their old profession, job, and employer.

They redefine themselves by uncovering their core truths. They chart a new course for their career journey that gives them more of what they want in their lives.

You’ve earned your independence

I’m obviously biased, but I think entrepreneurship and solopreneurship are part of the natural evolution of your career. Many of us reach a point where being an employee has diminishing returns as we ease closer to retirement. 

Research has found that having a sense of purpose is essential. Completely retiring and leaving the working world isn’t healthy.

But you probably don’t want to keep cranking away at a 9-5 job after you’ve already worked so hard for decades climbing the ladder. You deserve more freedom. You’ve earned the right to have more independence, and that’s where solopreneurship comes in.

When I was preparing to leave my last corporate job over 11 years ago, I met with a colleague for coffee. He asked what I was doing next, and I said I was exploring a few options such as a head of Product at a smaller company or a CPO at a startup. 

He looked at me funny and said, “Why? At this point in your career and with your connections, you should do your own startup. You could easily raise funding.”

Well, I did start consulting again and kept my eyes open for a few roles with employers. But, I soon decided that I would never return to being an employee. 

So, here I am today, running this business as a leadership & career coach and business advisor for several years now and loving it. I just can’t give up the independence and freedom it provides me. 

Of course, not everyone wants this. But, for those of us who value our time and freedom more than money, we can’t imagine living our lives any other way. 

As I said earlier, I cherish my experiences in the corporate world. It taught me a lot. I see it as an investment, much like my time acquiring my college degree and Ph.D.

However, at some point, it became a series of diminishing returns. I knew that my time in the corporate world was coming to an end. 

Rather than riding my job all the way to the bitter end, I chose to exit at a high point. My ideal career journey has now enabled me to leverage everything I’ve learned and experienced to build my own business and define how I chose to work.

I know that entrepreneurship may not be suitable for everyone. But, as my recent surveys have revealed:

* 60-83% of you are certain that you want to start your own business at some point in your career.

* 17-40% of you aren’t sure yet, but you’re considering it.

* So far, only a tiny number of people have said “No way” when asked if entrepreneurship was in their future.

I think it’s time to redefine what entrepreneurship means so that it’s more approachable for more people. It doesn’t have to be some overwhelmingly scary career move. I view it as a natural step on our overall professional path and life journey, and I know that it can be very fulfilling and rewarding.

I’m here to help! I’m currently creating a series of courses and a peer community to help guide people on a journey from employee to solopreneur. The launch date will be in 2022. If you’re interested in learning more, sign up to be notified here. Thanks!

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my more detailed reading of this article 🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s precisely what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.

https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - Networking to Practice Your Communication Skills

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), that community probably isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take complete control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Welcome to Invincible Career — a newsletter by Larry Cornett that helps ambitious professionals live better lives. You can read what it’s all about here. If you find this article helpful or interesting, consider sharing it with a friend or two. If you’ve been reading and enjoying my newsletter for a while, consider a premium membership that gives you access to my private community, weekly office hours, and exclusive professional development prompts and challenges!

About 13 years ago, I was overweight, in poor health, and on the fast path to an early grave. The very first thing I did to save my life was starting a habit of evening walks with my wife.

After dinner, we would walk up the steep hills in our neighborhood to the summit and back down. It took about an hour, which felt like a luxury of time that I couldn’t afford with my busy work schedule (I was an exec at Yahoo at that time).

However, the truth was it was a time investment that I had to “afford” or I would pay an unacceptable price later. I already had friends and acquaintances who had died from heart disease, sudden strokes, and cancer.

Did I want to see my children grow up? Did I want to meet my grandchildren someday? Well, I had to make a tough decision.

* Do I make time for physical activity to improve my health but take time away from work, which I suspected would harm me a little professionally?

* Or, do I spend that time working every evening to aggressively advance my career, knowing that I was risking my health and would die an earlier death?

Luckily, I chose to invest in myself, my health, and my future. I’m doubly glad that I did because I made a fantastic discovery along the way:

Taking a break from work for exercise, walking, and thinking made me more creative, helped me solve stubborn problems, and boosted my energy and productivity later!

That investment of time more than paid for itself, in so many ways.

* I had more energy and enthusiasm.

* I no longer felt sleepy and burned out early in the evening.

* It helped me visualize creative solutions when I faced an intractable problem.

* I was more productive when I returned to work.

* People at work noticed the “new me” and how positive and energetic I was.

* I began envisioning a more exciting professional future.

* I made plans to turn my dreams into reality (e.g., starting my own business, moving closer to the mountains and national forests).

* My future suddenly seemed bright again.

* I began a health and fitness journey that has lasted more than 13 years and is a part of my daily life. I lift weights every morning, walk two miles every day, and run 2+ miles with my wife every night (and 6+ miles on the weekends).

* I’m more innovative and creative, and I often write articles in my head while walking and running.

I’m not saying any of this to brag or show off. I’m sharing this — as someone in his 50s — to demonstrate that it’s never too late to improve your health and fitness. More importantly, I’m sharing this to talk about how the simple act of daily walking can have a profoundly positive impact on your physical health, cognitive capabilities, and professional success!

Famous walkers

Some people who use walking (or used to when they were alive) to improve their thinking, working, and productivity:

* Aristotle gave his lectures while walking the grounds of his school in Athens.

* Nassim Taleb talked about why he enjoys a mixture of slow, leisurely, conversational walks and intense brisk walks.

* Susan Froetschel said, “As I walk along familiar streets in my neighborhood, I think about my writing and observe my surroundings, gathering descriptions of trees and sky and weather.”

* Charles Dickens wrote in the morning, walked in the afternoon, and said, “If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish.”

* Steve Jobs walked to clear his head and solve problems. He would often hold walking meetings to keep everyone focused and productive and to keep ideas flowing.

* Walking played a significant role in Virginia Woolf’s creative writing process.

* Søren Kierkegaard used walking to think through ideas and write in his head (I do this all time too).

* “Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Every day, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.” — Søren Kierkegaard

* Ludwig Van Beethoven took long, solitary walks to think, be creative, and capture new musical ideas.

* Charles Darwin walked every morning before breakfast and twice again in the afternoon.

While researching this newsletter, I found hundreds of more examples of intelligent and talented people who make — or made — a walk part of their daily lives. I think you get the point. They might be onto something…

Benefits of Daily Walks

I simply enjoy my daily walks. Even if there were no tangible benefits — other than the enjoyment — I’d still make time for them.

However, there’s plenty of scientific evidence that walking is good for you in many, many ways. Here are some examples.

Physical

* Walking briskly for about an hour a day cut the effects of weight-promoting genes in half for study participants.

* Walking can reduce cravings and the intake of a variety of sugary snacks.

* An American Cancer Society study found that women who walked seven or more hours a week had a 14% lower risk of breast cancer than those who walked three hours or fewer per week.

* Walking reduces arthritis pain, and walking 5-6 miles a week can prevent arthritis from forming in the first place.

* A study of over 1,000 men and women found that those who walked at least 20 minutes a day, at least five days a week, had 43% fewer sick days than those who exercised once a week or less.

Longevity

* People in the “Blue Zones” of the world (i.e., with the highest proportions of people who reach age 100) walk everywhere and every single day.

* Adults who take 8,000 or more steps a day have a reduced risk of death over the following decade than those who only walk 4,000 steps a day.

* Cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with long-term mortality with no upper limit of benefit (supporting research).

* The sweet spot for physical activity and longevity seems to be about 35 minutes a day of brisk walking or other moderate activities.

Cognitive

* Walking outdoors improves cognitive performance and induces a more meditative state than indoor exercise.

* Prolonged uninterrupted sitting at a desk reduces cerebral blood flow (which is associated with lower cognitive functioning and increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases); however, this is offset when frequent short-duration walking breaks are incorporated into the day.

Emotional

* Employees who used their lunch break to take a walk in a park experienced higher levels of well-being at the end of a working day.

* Walking promotes positive affect and can override the effects of other negative feelings such as boredom and dread.

* Three short, brisk walks (e.g.,10 min) during the day can reduce cardiovascular risk and improve aspects of mood in previously sedentary individuals.

Professional

* Walking opens up the free flow of ideas and boosts creativity.

* Walking can help you break free of mental blocks and solve problems.

* Employees who walked in a park at lunchtime enjoyed better concentration later and less fatigue in the afternoon.

Personal observations

With my own experiences with walking outdoors, I’ve found that it:

* Becomes a form of physical meditation

* Improves my mood and calms me

* Reduces my stress and anxiety

* Boost my creativity

* Helps me solve problems more easily

* Helps me keep things in perspective

* Increases my energy levels

* Improves my relationship with my wife (e.g., we talk about our day)

* Helps me sleep better

Depending on the time of year and weather, my wife and I walk about two miles (and run another two miles) either before or after dinner in the evening. We usually do longer hikes and trail runs on the weekend.

Even though our daily walks and runs only take about an hour, I can see where carving out more time for it might be challenging for some people with already packed schedules. So, here are some ideas for creatively working walking into your day.

Walking meetings

A coworker introduced me to walking meetings several years ago (Thanks, Mike!). They’re great for physical meetings in the real world when weather permits.

However, now we have most of our meetings virtually over Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, Teams, etc. While it’s possible to use these apps on your phone while walking, they aren’t designed for that experience.

Are you sick of video meetings? If so, you should check out Spot.

Their mobile app is a collaboration tool built to support walking meetings. You jot down agenda items to discuss, share your personal room link, join the meeting, and enjoy the walk!

Walking calls

Remember making phone calls? Remember having conference calls before Zoom?

During the quarantines that started in 2020, a friend of mine started doing most of her work calls while walking. No video. Just a Bluetooth headset and her phone. She got some serious miles in!

Wild, huh? Imagine that. A regular old phone call!

I know that many people are complaining about Zoom fatigue. So, see if you can change some of your video meetings into simple phone calls.

Calls are also safer when you’re walking, although I highly recommend a Bluetooth headset (e.g., AirPods). You don’t want to be staring at a screen when you should be paying attention to your surroundings (e.g., avoiding traffic in crosswalks).

Walking lunches

You need to eat, right? Well, instead of eating at your desk or wolfing down a meal during a meeting at your desk, take a walking lunch.

I used to do that when I was still working with people in Silicon Valley. We’d grab a meal that was easy to eat while walking (e.g., sandwich, burrito, smoothie). Then, we’d walk, talk, and eat.

I know that’s not a very intense walking session when you’re also eating. But, we’d walk very briskly to the cafe and also walk briskly back to the office when we finished eating.

If you’re crazy, you could even try a lunch walk like my friend Anke took me on when we were in The Hague. We were there for a conference, and she said she knew a great place for lunch nearby. She said we could easily walk there (no taxi required).

Well, that “short walk” was actually over two hours! We walked two hours to the restaurant, had lunch, and walked two hours back to the conference. No wonder she’s so fit if that’s her idea of a short walk.

Just do it

Don't worry about intensity or distance if you’re just getting started with making walking part of your daily life. Just make time for some walking every day. Just do it!

The best physical activity is the one you won’t give up. So, take your time and ease into it.

Do you know how many times I started and stopped running in my lifetime? I lost track. I can’t even remember how many times I started and then gave up lifting weights for the first 40+ years of my life. I tried to begin with way too much intensity.

My journey to where I am today with my fitness and activity levels started with a simple and easy evening walk. Now, I can’t imagine a day without it.

I know that you want a long, healthy, and happy life. We all do! I know that you want to achieve success in your professional life too. You wouldn’t be reading this newsletter or listening to my podcast if you didn’t.

Initially, it may have seemed strange that I chose the topic of walking for this article. But, now I hope you can see why.

Let me know how your daily walking goes!

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my more detailed reading of this article 🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s precisely what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.

https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - How to Be on a Panel

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), that community probably isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take complete control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Welcome to Invincible Career — a newsletter by Larry Cornett that helps ambitious professionals live better lives. You can read what it’s all about here. If you find this article helpful or interesting, consider sharing it with a friend or two. If you’ve been reading and enjoying my newsletter for a while, consider a premium membership that gives you access to my private community, weekly office hours, and exclusive professional development prompts and challenges!

I see so many quitters. They start something new and quickly stop if they don't have wildly successful results. If they aren’t immediately great at something, they walk away.

Or, they give up once they encounter the hard work that exists when you get past the initial, exciting rush of a new hobby, project, or endeavor. It’s no longer fun.

Real-life success isn’t like winning some effortless lottery. Even if you do see early promise, taking something all the way requires consistent effort, grit, and determination.

Yes, you do have to know when to fold ’em. It’s easy to succumb to the sunk cost fallacy and want to keep going when you’ve already invested so much. But, sometimes, an initiative just isn’t going to work out, no matter how much time and effort you sink into it.

But, you also have to know when to hold ‘em. Just because something isn’t easy doesn’t mean that you should give up.

* Steve Carell played smaller parts on television for almost 10 years before landing his big role in The Office.

* Jack Canfield was rejected 144 times before finding a publisher for his book, Chicken Soup for the Soul (my affiliate link). It’s now sold more than 500 million copies worldwide.

* It took 5 years and 5,126 failed prototypes for James Dyson to develop the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner.

* When J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, she was divorced, bankrupt, and on welfare. A dozen publishers rejected her before one finally agreed to publish the book.

* Amazon was founded in 1994 and didn’t show a profit until the fourth quarter of 2001.

We look around, see successful people, and forget that it took them a long, long time to get to where they are today. Where would they be if they had given up and quit in the first few months or years?

“There's a reason this 10-years-to-overnight-success pattern shows up over and over. And it's not just about working hard over a long period of time. I know from personal experience. In 2004, I started a personal-finance blog while I was a college student. Today, that "hobby" is a multimillion-dollar business. For the first three years, we made no money (literally). In 2014, 10 years later, we had our first $5 million week.”— Ramit Sethi, Why Successful People Take 10 Years to 'Succeed Overnight'

But how can you quit being a quitter when you have a history of that behavior?

How can you push through and commit to doing something for the long haul when you know it’s good for you?

How can you stop giving up when the going gets rough?

I want to share some advice that has worked for me and others:

* Done is better than perfect

* Be OK with being bad

* Scratch your own itch

* Do it for you

* Keep showing up

Done is better than perfect

The curse of perfectionism is one reason people turn into quitters. When they fear that something isn’t going to turn out well or that they won’t be great at a new activity, they give up before failure occurs. If it won’t be perfect, then forget it.

I’ve lived with this curse, as well. Believe me; I’m not saying that I’ve always been full of amazing grit and determination. I’ve given up on plenty of things. I’ve quit more times than I care to admit.

I screwed up my first year of college and quit in the middle of the second year. I was disappointed in my performance. Unfortunately, school had always been easy for me, so I never learned to dig in and really study. College required more hard work than I expected, and I wasn’t doing well, so I tapped out.

However, I did return, and I did finish. I finally had to set aside my notion of being a perfect student and getting perfect grades. I didn’t have to graduate with a 4.0, but I did want to finish what I had started.

“Done is better than perfect.”― Sheryl Sandberg

Making peace with flawed completion can help you overcome perfectionism. Rather than giving up when things get hard and messy, focus on just getting the damn thing done.

Think about how good it will feel to finish that thing you’ve been putting off (or keep quitting). It’s also OK to reward yourself when you succeed at pushing through your discomfort to complete an unpleasant task or project.

Be OK with being bad

Many quitters don’t want to do anything they aren’t good at doing. It’s upsetting to accept mediocrity, so they give up. If they can’t be the best, what’s the point?

The other day, my wife reminded me of a saying; if something is worth doing, it's worth doing poorly. You have to give up an “all or nothing” mindset.

The example we discussed was exercise. A 10-minute walk may not seem like a worthwhile workout. But, you know what? It's a helluva lot better than sitting on your butt all day and never walking at all.

Even on my worst days (like today), I'm still going to work out for a few minutes. I have a terrible headache that won't quit. But I'll lift for at least 15 minutes instead of doing nothing today. Perhaps — like most days this happens — I'll feel better by the end of that 15 minutes and keep going.

Some things are worth doing, even if you’re bad at doing them. Even when you can’t give it your all, they’re good for you, give you pleasure, help you relax, or are just fun!

So, rather than give up, make peace with being “bad” at them and keep going. What you’ll probably discover in the end is that chipping away at something every day eventually transforms your bad into ok, good, or even great.

Scratch your own itch

As a business owner, writer, and podcaster, I thrive on sharing my thoughts, knowledge, and advice with others. I love helping people.

However, it can be tempting to give up and quit it all when you feel like your words are being sent into the void. I know many business owners who doubt themselves and wonder if it’s worth continuing when they feel like no one is listening, engaging, or buying.

One way to break through the temptation to quit is to scratch your own itch. Create something that you need too. Build things that you want.

Then, if other people want it too, great! But, your drive to continue and make progress isn’t dependent on how others react. You keep making it for you.

I know, I know. You’re supposed to find real potential customers, talk with them, and listen to uncover their needs and wants. Solve their problems. Build for them!

Yes, that's an amazing way to build a new business. When you get it right — just right — it works like magic.

However, it's damn hard to build a new business that you personally don't care about. If you don't have skin in the game, you feel passionless about the problem and the solution.

I’ve watched many new businesses fail because they tried to create something they thought would make money, but they had no personal interest in the space at all. Their heart wasn’t in it, and it showed.

On the other hand, there have been many successful businesses built by founders who wanted to scratch their own itch:

* Joel Gascoigne created Buffer to solve a problem he was dealing with when trying to schedule out his social media strategy ("In reality, all I wanted to do was to tweet five times per day." — Joel Gascoigne).

* Joe Gebbia and Brian Chesky wanted to make some extra money renting space in their apartment during a conference, and thus the idea for AirBnB was born.

* Chad Hurley and Steve Chen created YouTube because they wanted an easier way to share videos.

* Joshua Schachter built Del.icio.us as a better way to keep track of his links/bookmarks.

* Rashmi Sinha and Jonathan Boutelle built SlideShare to solve a problem they and their friends were dealing with after speaking at conferences (i.e., how to share the presentation files easily).

These companies (and more) were created by founders who wanted to scratch their own itch. Then, they built an audience of more people like themselves who had the same itch.

One way to ensure you won’t quit a project is to build something you need. Then, it doesn’t matter what other people think. You want it, so you keep going.

Do it for you

My advice isn’t only for people who want to build a business. Some things are worth doing — and not quitting — simply because they are good for you.

I'm talking about everyday life. I'm talking about things that can enrich your life and make you happier, healthier, and more fulfilled.

For example:

* I write for myself.

* I create art for myself.

* I make music for myself.

I don't have to be great at any of those things. I don't need amazing results.

I just commit to doing them consistently — for me. If my followers want to come along for the ride, I love to have company. If no one else likes it, it doesn't matter.

I'm doing it for me.

You should do it — whatever IT is — for you too. Is there something you enjoy doing, even though you’re not great at doing it? Is there something you know you should keep doing because it’s good for you?

I’m sure there is. So, whatever it is, don’t worry about being good at it. Don’t worry about what others think. Just keep doing it for you.

Keep showing up

A big part of success is showing up and not giving up (e.g., don’t break the chain). Most people quit. Most people start and never finish. Very few people stay the course and keep chipping away at whatever it is they want to accomplish.

When you keep showing up, it sets you apart. You’ll be one of the few — the very few — who refuses to be a quitter.

I may not be the best in the world at anything, but at least I keep showing up. The one thing I can be proud of is my stubborn consistency. 😂

* I've been writing on Medium for the past 6 years.

* I've been publishing a newsletter twice a week, every week, for more than 2 years.

* I've been working out almost every day for the past 12 years.

I tried doing it for someone else. I tried doing it for an audience. I tried doing it for you instead of me.

But, there's not enough signal or feedback to reinforce my behavior. The vast majority of my followers and readers are absolutely silent.

I have no idea if you're reading this, enjoying my words, or hating my message. I do hear from a few people, which I always love. That does help, and I appreciate you!

But it's not enough to keep me going. I read, research, write, and record videos and podcasts for hours and hours every day.

It's a serious commitment of my time, energy, and passion. If a creator ever tells you that they haven't considered giving up, they're lying.

So, how do I keep doing it? How do I consistently crank out content and publish stuff every day all over the place?

I realized that I had to switch gears and rewire my feedback and reward system. It took years, but I do find the act of creation is pleasurable and cathartic now. But, more than anything, I tell myself to keep showing up and that I have no choice.

Not doing it is unacceptable. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but I do have to keep showing up and creating.

So, whatever you want to be doing and know that you should be doing, find a way to keep showing up. Create a habit and a schedule that ensures you make progress — even the smallest amount of progress — every day.

* Invest in your professional development for yourself, not for some fickle employer.

* Write to put your thoughts out into the world because you want them to exist, not for some imaginary reader.

* Create your art because you want to make the images in your mind become tangible and real, not for some potential buyer.

* Make music because it heals your soul, not because you hope it will make you famous someday.

The world is already full of consumers, sellouts, and quitters. We don’t need more. Be a creator and a doer.

Be different.

Be true to yourself.

Do it for you.

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my more detailed reading of this article 🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s exactly what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.

https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - How to Host a Workshop

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), that community probably isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Welcome to Invincible Career — a newsletter by Larry Cornett that helps ambitious professionals live better lives. You can read what it’s all about here. If you find this article helpful or interesting, consider sharing it with a friend or two. If you’ve been reading and enjoying my newsletter for a while, consider a premium membership that gives you access to my private community, weekly office hours, and exclusive professional development prompts and challenges.

“While today’s wunderkind culture favors early bloomers and seems to create needless barriers for late bloomers, in fact, we late bloomers have our own amazing strengths that lead to success and fulfillment. And these qualities — curiosity, compassion, resilience, equanimity, insight, and wisdom — are conferred only with time.” — Rich Karlgaard, Late Bloomers: The Hidden Strengths of Learning and Succeeding at Your Own Pace (my affiliate link)

I’ve always been a late bloomer. It’s not my imagination or an exaggeration. I definitely progressed on a slower and more deliberate timeline than most others.

* I was small for my age and didn’t physically mature until my 20s.

* I didn’t have a serious relationship until I was 18 and out of high school.

* I screwed up my first year of college, dropped out, came back, and graduated much later than my peers.

* When I applied to graduate school at 25 years old, I was considered so “old” that my advisor recommended I address the issue head-on in my application letters.

* I married later than my friends, and we had our first child later than them as well.

* I was over 30 when I started my first solo business, and I was in my late 40s when I founded my first tech startup.

* I didn’t start seriously working out and lifting weights until I was in my 40s.

* It feels like I’ve only truly started feeling calm and confident now in my 50s.

Yeah, no one would ever describe me as an “early bloomer.” 🤣

Do you think of yourself as a late bloomer too? During your lifetime, have you ever felt like you were one step behind your peers in physical development, maturity, professional achievements, finding success, or those magical markers of adulthood (e.g., getting married, having children, buying a home)? 

Unfortunately, many of us have experienced a great deal of stress and anxiety due to cultural pressure to hurry up, figure out our lives, and chase society’s definition of success. When you always feel like you’re trying to “catch up” with other people, it does a number on your self-esteem and self-confidence.

* You feel like you’re behind your friends and peers.

* You may feel like you’re never good enough.

* You find yourself sprinting for some mythical “finish line” that was established by someone else (and actually may not be right for you anyway). 

* In your darkest moments, you feel like a failure as you watch your peers passing you by. 

* You become frustrated and discouraged when you watch your friends achieve success that you haven’t yet. 

* You wonder if you should just give up.

A Flawed Definition of Success

The idea that success has a schedule or an expiration date is deeply flawed. You aren’t a failure if you haven’t achieved society’s definition of success in your 20s or 30s.

We all develop on a different timeline.

Also, the supposed “race” we’re running is a one-person event. Yes, it’s great to be ambitious and push yourself. But, much of this peer-to-peer competition is disastrous for our emotional well-being.

The only comparison you should be making is to your past self:

* Are you doing better than you were before? 

* Are you a better person than you were yesterday? 

* Are you still learning and growing? 

* Are you figuring out what you really want, what makes you happy, and what fulfillment means for you?

Our culture’s fascination with young early bloomers is so wrong because it is so fatalistic. It makes us think that — beyond a certain age — we are what we are and will never be something more.

We start to believe that things are set in stone as we grow older. You’re either a success by 30, or it’s now clear that you never will be a success.

If you haven’t achieved your dreams by now, just give up and settle for less. Head to the local bar after work and drink away your sorrows. 

That’s bullsh*t.

We don’t have to accept that fate. I’m in my 50s now, and I’m still changing all the time. If anything, I am even more aware of what makes me feel happy and fulfilled. So I’m continuously improving, adjusting my career, and changing my life. 

I mean, what’s the alternative? To settle for being miserable? 

No thanks.

Five Ways to Make Peace with It

If you’re a little bit older, you’ve probably watched a few “early achievers” stagnate or burn out. Despite our society’s fascination with it, early success is no guarantee of lasting success. There are plenty of examples of young superstars who flamed out and faded away.

It’s a cliché, but it is true; life is a marathon, not a sprint. However, that metaphor isn’t entirely applicable here either because there is no finish line.

How you feel while you’re running matters more. If you’re stressed, anxious, and miserable every day, what’s the point? What do you think you’re going to “win” at the end of this mythical race?

Where you're running — and where you're trying to go — matter too. What’s the point of sprinting to that mythical finish line if you hate where you’re running every day?

And, are you really on the right path to end up where you want to be anyway? I sure as hell wasn’t. But, I was so busy sprinting and chasing some meaningless dream of wealth that I hadn’t stopped to think about where the rat race was taking me.

I used to be so stressed about being a late bloomer. But, not anymore. I’ve finally hit my stride, and I’m enjoying the journey.

I stopped putting off enjoying life until some imaginary retirement date in the future. I focused on building a business and a life that I can enjoy now.

My health is better than ever. My self-confidence is stronger than ever. I know what I want (and don’t want), and I don’t give a damn about what other people think about my choices anymore.

If you're a late bloomer like me, it’s time for you to embrace it too. Here’s how you can start doing that now.

1. Realize that it’s never too late

Don’t ever feel like it’s too late to have what you want in life. Don’t give in to a feeling of hopelessness. 

History shows us that talented people are capable of having amazing success for the rest of their lives. For example, this year, at age 70, Richard Branson became one of the first people to ride in his own spacecraft out of the Earth’s atmosphere and into space.

Grit and determination matter. I know people who are still pursuing their big dreams in their 70s and 80s. Don’t give up!

2. Stop the comparison contest

Stop comparing yourself to other people in all the wrong ways. I know you've heard this advice before. We all have. And, yet, we keep doing it. 

Sometimes it is a conscious comparison (e.g., “My friend just took his company public and became a billionaire. What have I accomplished?”). Sometimes it is a subconscious comparison in the back of your mind as you mindlessly scroll Instagram and see your friends doing exciting things on an amazing vacation. 

But, you’ll never be happy if you keep doing it. You also have no idea what is really going on in these people’s lives.

I know some folks that I thought had it all when I viewed their public posts. But, I discovered later that their personal lives were a disaster.

Use yourself as your progress indicator. Only compare yourself to your past self. Once you start doing that, the whole game changes for the better.

3. Keep dreaming big

Always be dreaming. I talked about this in my story, “Why dreaming big isn’t a waste of time.” 

Dreaming gives you a clarity of purpose that will light up every opportunity that comes your way. It allows you to seize the moment instead of letting things slip by. And, it never has to stop.

I don’t know who decided to put an expiration date on dreams, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Learning and growing keep you young. Chasing new and exciting goals keeps you going!

4. Keep making plans

Always be planning. Dreams are inspiring, and they can help you recognize opportunities. But, they aren’t enough.

You will need a plan to put ideas into motion and take meaningful action. Plan and be ready. 

And, I’m not talking about the plans you make for your job. Yeah, I’m sure you have to do a lot of that. But, you should be making plans for your personal life and goals that are independent of your work.

If you’re a late bloomer, you have a lifelong curiosity that serves you well. Use it to keep exploring and planning your next adventure.

5. Build those habits

Finally, discipline, persistence, and progress matter more than you would imagine. James Clear talks about this in his book, “Atomic Habits” (my affiliate link). Consistently making small changes and improvements in your life will accumulate amazing results over time.

I’ve always been a late bloomer, and that used to bother me so much. But, I’ve increasingly learned to appreciate it over my lifetime. I may be slower to find my path forward, but it feels better and better all the time. 

It helps me avoid crazy fits and starts and massive failures. It feels like I’ve been slowly sculpting my life out of a block of marble, revealing more of what it is meant to be. 

But, more than anything, I’ve focused on making my happiness, success, and fulfillment about me and what is right for me vs. comparing myself to others. 

I finally learned that I don’t want what they have. I also don’t want to live the life they are forced to live to have what they have. 

It’s never too late to commit to your own path of personal success and fulfillment! The alternative is unacceptable. You don’t have to play the same game that early bloomers play.

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my more detailed reading of this article 🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s exactly what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - How to Find Speaking Events

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), that community probably isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Welcome to Invincible Career — a newsletter by Larry Cornett with advice for ambitious professionals. You can read what this is all about here. If you find this article helpful or interesting, consider sharing it with a friend or two. If you’ve been reading and enjoying my newsletter for a while, consider a premium membership that gives you access to my private community, weekly office hours, and exclusive professional development prompts and challenges.

My guest for this episode is Brigitte Granger. She is committed to making happier, healthier living easier and more fun through the power of human connection. She’s the CEO and founder of Supporti, a service that helps people put in consistent work towards their big goals with the help of a mutual accountability partner.

Having a master’s degree in social and behavioral sciences from Harvard and a bachelor's in human science from Georgetown, Brigitte approaches problems with an experimental mindset — a key entrepreneurial skill.

We talk about:

* What inspired her to found the startup

* Why she’s bootstrapping vs. raising funding

* The power of accountability and the difference between groups and 1-on-1 partners

* What she’s learned by observing her community

* The rise of “AuthenTech”

* Her advice for other founders

You can find the Supporti app here:

* The App Store

* Google Play

Key points from our conversation

I want to call out a few points from my conversation with Brigitte to help you if you’re considering the startup path. She also shared some interesting insights about accountability that could help you pursue your most important goals.

The Power of Accountability

Educating people and simply telling them to do things isn’t enough. People need social support to help them make better decisions, change behaviors, and establish daily habits.

When she lived in Boston, she had a personal goal of waking up every morning for a run. She found an accountability partner who went jogging with her every week.

Rain or shine, she got up in those dark, cold mornings to meet her friend for their runs. She felt accountable to her friend, so she couldn’t sleep in and skip their workout.

However, when she moved away, she no longer had that 1-on-1 partner. She joined some running clubs but found that it wasn’t quite as motivating as having one person counting on her. With a group, you know that other people will show up, so it’s — unfortunately — easier to skip a workout.

This experience inspired her to create Supporti to help other people find those essential 1-on-1 accountability partners.

Bootstrapping vs. Raising Funding

It takes years to build a new business. There is no “overnight success.” Acquiring customers is hard work, and it takes a long time to grow a sustainable business.

There is so much pressure to take the path of raising funding for your startup. But, the venture capital model of “growth at all costs” does not work for Brigitte or her Supporti community.

She is following the AuthenTech approach of organically building a company that prioritizes community, connection, and authenticity. AuthenTech companies prioritize community over audience, intention over attention, and value over profit.

So, she is consulting and coaching to bring in more consistent income to bootstrap Supporti and keep growing it. More entrepreneurs would succeed if they created multiple income streams vs. hoping the single revenue stream from their business will be sufficient.

Overcome Perfectionism

Brigitte has a bias for action. She doesn’t struggle with perfectionism, but many of her clients and friends do. For example, it keeps so many people from launching the businesses they dream about building.

She recommends that you take small steps and just get something out. You lose time when you wait to make something “perfect” and aren’t capturing data on what’s working or not.

Quickly launch, get feedback, learn, and iterate to improve your product and business.

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to our full conversation, and hear more of Brigitte’s advice that can help you achieve your goals! 🎧

Ready to join my private community?

Subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation to join my private community of ambitious professionals who help each other become more successful and fulfilled in their working lives. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week and chat with the other members and me every day!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s exactly what has happened for many people in my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - Invest in Your Public Speaking Skills

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), that community probably isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Did you know that a bad boss and toxic work environment might be worse for your health than smoking? People often joke around about how much they hate their jobs and managers. But, the stress is apparently no laughing matter.

Researchers from Harvard and Stanford conducted a meta-analysis of more than 200 studies to understand the effects of stress in the workplace. Some of their findings:

* Worrying about losing your job makes you 50% more likely to experience poor health.

* Having an overly demanding job makes you 35% more likely to have a physician-diagnosed illness.

People sometimes get caught up with pursuing prestigious employers. I’ve worked with clients who absolutely wanted to land a job at one of the FAANG companies. Why? Just because they are a FAANG company and they think it will look great on their resumes.

People also get hung up on job titles. They think they are willing to put up with a ton of stress and unhappiness as long as they land that big promotion.

Finally, people do chase money. They’re willing to sacrifice their personal lives, relationships, and health for significant compensation.

I say “people,” but I used to be one of those people too. I wanted a job at one of the big companies. So, I did work at Apple, and I interviewed and received a job offer from Google.

I aggressively climbed the career ladder and pursued an executive job title. I did think that more money would make my life better.

But, no job title and no amount of money can make you feel better about working for a bad manager in a toxic work environment. Eventually, the stress and anxiety catch up with you. It’s not worth it.

From research by Clarine M. Jacobs, Ph.D., published in Ineffective-Leader-Induced Occupational Stress:

* Nearly 70% of employees rated work as a significant source of stress.

* Almost 75% of workers rated their leader as the most significant source of stress.

* Roughly 80% of workers experienced stress-related physical symptoms, including fatigue and exhaustion; irritability or anger; lack of interest, motivation, or energy; headaches; and dyspepsia.

* 51% of workers reported decreased productivity at work because of stress.

* More than 75% of employees believe they are under more occupational stress than the previous generation was.

Ok, that’s enough scary statistics. I think you get the picture, and I’m sure you’ve experienced some of this in at least one of your jobs or with one of your past bosses.

Some stress is inevitable. Heck, even some level of stress helps you adapt and grow.

However, high levels of sustained stress are awful for you. If you’re already dealing with other issues (e.g., experiencing poor health, struggling with personal relationships), the added stress at work will push you beyond the limit of what you can manage.

So, how can you ensure that you’ll be working for a good boss when you make your next career move?

Choosing the right boss

People focus so much on choosing their next employer and job. “I want to be a senior designer either at Google or Facebook!”

However, they often accept that their manager will be who it will be. Not good. You should spend just as much time seeking and selecting your next manager as you spend researching companies and jobs.

I’ve learned that a great manager at a mediocre company will do more for your career than a terrible boss at a great company. Who your boss is will significantly impact your work satisfaction, success, and career progress. 

It doesn’t matter how great a company is if your manager is terrible. Your self-confidence, health, and career growth can be ruined by a boss who tears you down, doesn’t support you, and blackballs you for the rest of your career.

One of the riskiest moves you can make is to accept a job offer with a company where you have no idea who your manager will be. Even riskier is to accept a job offer when you already know that your manager will be a problem.

Sometimes, everyone will agree that someone is a bad boss. However, some bosses are fine for some people, but their leadership and communication styles don't work for you. That’s why it’s so important to ask the right questions, do your research, and uncover red flags before you join.

I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to talk with past employees who have experience with your potential manager. That will often be your best source for reliable information and honest answers. Current employees may be afraid to tell you bad things about their boss.

Some questions to ask past employees:

* Does the manager have a good reputation and healthy relationships within the company?

* What kind of people work best with this manager?

* Who doesn’t seem to be a good fit for this manager?

* Does this manager invest in their team?

* How do they make decisions?

* What happens when this manager gets upset? How do they behave?

* Would you work for them again? Why or why not?

* Would you recommend that a friend work for this manager? Why or why not?

Some questions to ask current employees:

* What do you enjoy about working here?

* How do you feel about the workload and expectations?

* What’s it like working for this manager? What is their management style? Communication style?

* How often do you meet with the manager?

* How are decisions made here?

* How is conflict resolved?

* What happens if you disagree with the manager?

* Do you feel like they invest in you and the team? Do you feel supported?

* How is success measured?

* What kind of people are rewarded here? Who tends to get promoted?

* How have you grown here? What does your future look like with the company?

* What kind of person doesn't do well here?

* Does the manager shield you from other leaders and the higher-ups?

* What are the biggest issues you’re dealing with?

* Would you want to follow your manager to another company? Why or why not?

Some questions to ask your potential manager:

* Why is this position open?

* Why did the last employee in this role leave the company?

* How do you make decisions?

* What do you do if an employee disagrees with you?

* What would your past employees say about you?

* How do you invest in your employees?

* What are your expectations for me in this role?

* What does success look like, and how will you measure it?

* How do you prefer to communicate and share information?

* How often do you like to get updates?

* How often would we meet?

Red flags:

* They seem to enjoy putting people in “their place.”

* They don’t praise and only give negative feedback (which they may call “constructive criticism”).

* They talk negatively about current employees on the team (e.g., “They’re a little lazy, so you’ll need to whip them into shape”).

* They speak negatively about their peers or higher-ups.

* They brag about their ruthlessness and how it helped them get ahead in their career (Believe it or not, I’ve experienced more than one leader talking like this).

* They talk negatively about past employees (e.g., “The previous manager was kind of weak.”).

* They cut you off when you’re speaking.

* They’re very controlling of the interview flow (e.g., they don’t let you ask questions until the end).

* They seem evasive when answering your questions or use defensive body language.

* They don’t behave respectfully during the interview (e.g., barely listening to you while reading emails on their phones).

* They make negative comments about your past experience, employers, degrees, or schools (e.g., “Literature degree? That seems kind of useless in this market.”).

* They have unreasonable expectations for the role and what you can reasonably accomplish (e.g., “I want you to redesign the entire product in 5 weeks.”).

* They don’t have a clear definition of success or how it will be measured.

* They tell you that you should feel “lucky” if you get the chance to work there.

* Strangely enough, they act way too friendly and are trying to convince you that the job and workplace are “perfect.”

* Current employees act nervous or artificially “happy” (e.g., “Oh boy, I sure do love working here!!! It’s all good.”).

* Past employees directly warn you about the manager or say they wouldn’t work for them again.

* Employees tell you that the manager tends to use fear, threats, and intimidation to get things done.

* Past employees seem afraid to answer your questions and want to make sure their name isn’t mentioned.

Choosing the right work environment

Different people thrive in different environments. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all company or employer that is best for everyone.

What type of company is the best fit for your next career move?

Do you work better in a smaller company where you know everyone or a larger company with more perks?

Do you want more potential upside with the associated risks, or do you prefer a more stable company with minimal risk?

Do you care how the company makes money (e.g., advertising vs. software subscriptions)?

Your answers to these questions can guide you to a clearer definition of your ideal employer. For example, the size of company and maturity you prefer:

* Early-stage startups

* Mid-stage startups

* Late-stage startups

* Small companies

* Mid-sized companies

* Larger companies

* Massive corporations

* Institutions (e.g., nonprofits, universities)

But, you will also need to consider the following as part of defining this ideal employer too:

* Organizational structures (e.g., flatter organizations or more hierarchical)

* Organizational cultures (e.g., informal vs. formal, open communication vs. more secretive, diverse vs. monoculture)

* Industries (e.g., consumer hardware, enterprise software, education, construction, consumer services, fintech, pharmaceutical)

* Business models (how does the employer make money?)

Red flags:

* The environment is described as being fast-paced, high-pressure, competitive, or “we work hard and play hard” (i.e., prepare for cutthroat coworkers, poor work-life balance, and lots of stress).

* They tell you that you’re joining a “rocket ship.”

* Everyone wears “multiple hats” (i.e., you’ll have four jobs and only paid for one).

* They overly emphasize the perks (e.g., lots of free food!).

* They lowball your compensation, talk about “earning potential,” and promise you that you’re going to get rich from the equity.

* Employees are supposed to feel like “family.”

* The culture is a monoculture (e.g., mostly MBAs from Stanford).

* The business model doesn’t seem viable or sustainable.

* You don’t like how the company makes money (e.g., ads).

Be intentional

Finding your next job goes way beyond choosing a role and employer. Unfortunately, great compensation, a fancy job title, and a prestigious company aren’t enough to ensure your success and happiness.

You can thrive in a great company culture or feel miserable every day in a toxic one. Likewise, you can watch your career success and personal fulfillment soar under a great leader or have your hopes dashed working for a terrible manager.

Be very intentional when you choose your next boss. Your success, health, and well-being depend on it!

Would you like more helpful advice and support as you are researching your next career move?

We’re only a click away when you subscribe, and I add you to my premium community and private office hours channel. Hope to see you there!

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my expanded discussion of this topic! 🎧

Want to join my career community?

If you’d like to be a part of my private community of ambitious professionals who want to be more successful in their careers, simply subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation. After four years, it’s no longer open to the general public. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s exactly what has happened for many members of my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Find Your Communities

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who also hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), this community isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

I remember it feeling like the end of the world. I thought I'd never be happy again. 

I experienced numerous failures at a young age. I bombed out my first year of college and lost my scholarship. I broke up with my girlfriend. My car broke down, I didn’t have a good job, and I had no idea how I was going to pay my rent.

When I was younger, failures like these were such an enormous setback. If something didn't work out, I just knew that I'd never find something that good ever again. 

However, with age comes perspective. I've now been able to watch what has happened in my life over and over again. And in the lives of others. 

I did go back to the university, got my degree, and went on to get a Ph.D. and land a great job in Silicon Valley with Apple. I met an amazing young woman, got married, and we’ve raised three wonderful children together (married for over 30 years now).

I left the corporate world over 11 years ago, gave up my first career, and started my own business about 5 years ago as a leadership and career coach and business advisor. We moved away from Silicon Valley to be closer to the mountains and forests near Lake Tahoe. I’ve never been happier (update: the nearby forest fires aren’t the greatest, though)!

What I've witnessed and experienced is that things always work out in the end. 

“Everything works out in the end. if it hasn't worked out yet, then it's not the end.”― Tracy McMillan

In fact, you often end up in a better situation. 

* A better relationship. 

* A better job. 

* A better place to live. 

Why is that?

Is it destiny? Is it faith? Was something better waiting for you? 

I think it happens for very different reasons because:

* You’re forced out of your comfort zone.

* You know what you want now.

* You know what you don’t want any longer.

* You’re willing to listen.

* You’re willing to learn.

* You have renewed confidence and conviction.

* You raise the bar on what you’ll accept.

* You start taking a longer-term view of life.

No more comfort zone

Not getting what you wanted, losing something, and failing all force you out of your comfort zone. It shakes you up and makes you reexamine your life.

I think we often settle. I know I did. We put up with less-than-optimal situations because it's familiar and comfortable. 

When you’re pushed out of your comfortable “nest,” you have no choice but to plan your next move.

Knowing what you want

When you lose something, it forces you to re-examine your life. Your goals. What you want next time. 

As a career coach, I often work with people who have experienced failure and loss. They’ve been laid off. They were fired. A situation at work is no longer tolerable.

As we work together, many will say, “This is the first time that I’ve thought about what I really want for my career — even my life. Up until now, it all has just happened.”

Knowing what you don't want

When you leave a job, relationship, or even an old life behind, it’s an opportunity to also think about what you absolutely do not want in your life moving forward. Knowing what you will no longer tolerate or allow is just as important as knowing what you do want.

This thought exercise is one big reason that we often end up in a better situation than before. A better job. A better relationship.

We get comfortable and often put up with too much crap because it becomes the death of a thousand cuts. It wasn’t terrible in the beginning.

However, slowly but surely, bad things crept into the job (or relationship). Well, now is the chance to never let that happen again!

A willingness to listen 

There's nothing like failure to help open your ears. I’m sure you’ve experienced this with a close friend. You watched them in a bad relationship or a bad work situation, and you probably offered advice.

What happened? I’m guessing that they didn’t listen. They stayed in the bad situation until it fell apart.

However, now that they’ve emerged from the other side, they are suddenly able to hear you. We’re the same way with our own issues.

When you’re neck-deep in it, it’s hard to be objective and really listen to what others are seeing and saying. Once you’re out of the situation, you are more willing to hear and learn.

A willingness to learn

Failure teaches you that you didn't have all the answers. It humbles you. It has certainly humbled me.

Now, you're willing to admit that you don't know everything and want to learn. No one wants to repeat their same failures over and over again. So, we become willing to learn and make better decisions the next time.

Every relationship failure made me a better partner the next time. Every work failure educated me. My startup failure forced me to learn more about marketing, sales, and growth so that my new business would succeed.

Renewed confidence and conviction 

Nothing fuels me more than failure, loss, and frustration. When things go wrong, it gives me an even stronger conviction to pursue my goals with a vengeance.

“Failure is a greater teacher than success”― Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Failure teaches me lessons. I learn what not to do next time.

I create a better strategy and plan. I bounce back with renewed confidence.

Use your loss, failure, and pain as fuel. Leverage it to give you greater conviction and confidence to succeed with your new venture.

Raising the bar

Sometimes losing something can be the best thing that ever happens to you. I know that’s hard to see in the moment. And, of course, it’s not true for all losses (e.g., the death of a loved one).

However, in retrospect, I see that many of my losses ended up being a good thing for me (as strange as that might sound). If you examine your past losses, you might see that pattern too. For example:

* You dodged a bullet (e.g., you almost worked for a terrible company or a horrible boss).

* You almost married someone wrong for you.

* You almost bought a house right before the market crashed.

In other cases, it forces you to raise the bar and find something even better for you. For example, I've watched people go through painful breakups and then end up with a much better partner. 

Why? Because they now know what they want and what they won't put up with. The pain gave them more confidence and conviction to partner with someone better for them. 

You know that you deserve better. You won't settle, as you may have done in the past. 

I've experienced this with jobs and my own startup. Being forced out of my comfort zone by a bad re-org made me smarter and more intentional about what came next. I turned it into an opportunity for a better job and promotion somewhere else.

Being knocked out of my “Plan A” by the failure of my startup made me pause my life for a few months. I went through a dark period of questioning everything and rediscovering what really matters to me. Then, I planned exactly what I wanted for my career and life moving forward.

Every loss is an opportunity to aim higher for something better next time.

Taking a longer-term view

As my wife could tell you, I'm not the most positive person in the world. But, this is one area where I do have a positive outlook. 

I’ve slowly learned to take a longer-term view of life events. Or, I should say that I’ve learned that even the most painful situation fades with time and slowly gets better. What feels like a disaster right now may even turn out to be a good thing later.

It’s not easy, but try not to get caught up in the short-term chaos and let the bad emotions overwhelm you. Try to be patient, wait for the dust to settle, and then start making new plans.

Loss hurts, but things will get better.

Things always work out in the end.

You will find something (or someone) better for you.

Would you like helpful advice and support working through a challenging issue or problem?

We’re only a click away when you subscribe, and I add you to my premium community and private office hours channel. Hope to see you there!

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my expanded discussion of this topic! 🎧

Want to join my career community?

If you’d like to be a part of my private community of ambitious professionals who want to be more successful in their careers, simply subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation. After four years, it’s no longer open to the general public. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s exactly what has happened for many members of my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Connect with New People

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who also hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), this community isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.

Looking for a new job? Your weak ties may be more helpful than your close friends.

Want to start a new business or grow your customer base? You’re probably better off building new connections with acquaintances than tapping into your colleagues.

What is a weak tie? Well, it’s someone you know, but not very well. Or, you were close a long time ago but haven’t been in contact for years or decades.

These weak ties in your network have faded with time and distance. They could be:

* A classmate from high school.

* Your college roommate.

* One of your favorite professors.

* A coworker or boss from one of your early jobs.

* An old neighbor.

* Someone you met at a conference years ago.

* People you bump into at your local coffee shop or gym.

Contrast these types of relationships with the ones where you have strong ties. You have a much stronger and fresher connection with your current coworkers and manager. You are obviously very close to your family. Your good friends talk with you often and probably travel in similar social circles.

They know you very well. Perhaps too well.

That’s the complexity of strong ties. So many more factors come into play when friends and close colleagues make introductions, recommend each other for jobs, and provide testimonials. They don’t want to risk their reputations, but they also don’t want you to get burned. It’s a tricky balance.

Yes, these tight relationships are valuable for many, many reasons. Your close friends, family, and partners will help you, perform favors, make introductions, advise you, and maybe even hire you.

However, since you overlap so much, you will rarely be exposed to entirely new information or people. To learn and grow, you have to expose yourself to thoughts and ideas outside your bubble.

To expand your network and increase its diversity and value, you have to stretch yourself to seek out entirely new networks that are far away from your friends, family, and colleagues.

Seven ways that weak ties are valuable:

* Discovering new opportunities.

* Sharing new information.

* Exposure to new points of view.

* Improved cultural understanding.

* Increasing the diversity of your network.

* Increasing the power of your network.

* You are viewed as unique.

1. Discovering new opportunities

“Mark Granovetter surveyed people in professional, technical and managerial professions who recently changed jobs. Nearly 17% heard about the job from a strong tie…. But surprisingly, people were significantly more likely to benefit from weak ties. Almost 28% heard about the job from a weak tie. Strong ties provide bonds, but weak ties served as bridges: they provide more efficient access to new information.”— Adam Grant, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success (my affiliate link)

Within your stronger and closer networks, many of the people have already heard about the same opportunities. I remember this phenomenon when I was a young designer starting my first solopreneur agency.

When I talked with the designers in my Silicon Valley network, they often shared the same connections and potential gigs. They knew the same people at the same companies.

However, when I reached out to my friends in engineering, marketing, program management, etc., they were aware of completely different opportunities. They would bring me into companies to work on projects that my design peers didn’t know existed.

2. Sharing new information

When you want to learn new things continually, you’ll often discover that your weak ties in your broader network are a better source than your strong ties. How often does a friend or colleague share something with you, and you say, “Oh, yeah. I read that article this morning.”

It frequently happens to me. It’s perhaps not surprising. My close friends and colleagues all tend to read the same news sources and publications. We all work in the same general industry.

However, my weaker ties often share new information that I would never encounter in my daily life. Likewise, when I want to share information and reach a broader audience, I’m better off sharing it with acquaintances and even strangers.

Why? Because when my close friends and colleagues share my information with their networks, the overlap is significant. It reaches the same people again and never bridges across entirely new networks. People tune out when they keep seeing it and you.

Research published by Mark S. Granovetter supports this experience:

“…this means that whatever is to be diffused can reach a larger number of people, and traverse greater social distance (i.e., path length), when passed through weak ties rather than strong.”

3. Exposure to new points of view

It happens to the best of us. We live in our little worlds, seeing the same people every day, having the same conversations, and are too busy to explore beyond those boundaries.

Our familiar social and professional networks become echo chambers. We spend our days reading posts and articles that reinforce our point of view. We begin to falsely believe that everyone shares our political viewpoints, moral code, and life philosophy.

Then — as one example — we are horribly surprised during an election year. Just ask my liberal friends in California who couldn’t believe that people voted for Trump.

Well, I still have weak ties to the Midwest (where I grew up). So, I wasn’t surprised. I already knew that millions of people held very different viewpoints than my friends in Silicon Valley.

I’m not saying that you’ll always enjoy being exposed to different points of view. But, you shouldn’t place your head in the sand and dream that the world is 100% aligned with what you believe. Awareness is powerful.

4. Improved cultural understanding

By “culture,” I’m referring to it in every sense of the word. It’s a system of collectively held values unique to countries, geographies, cities, professions, religions, politics, online communities, and more.

You are a product of your culture. It influences you in ways you probably know, but also in ways you aren’t aware of.

The attitude of “us” vs. “them” is rarely healthy. Embracing the weak ties in your network allows you to become more culturally aware and sensitive. You can appreciate where someone is coming from, even if you don’t fully understand it or want to adopt it yourself.

For example, I’m still connected to old colleagues from my time living and working in Shanghai. Living there certainly improved my cultural understanding of my friends in China. Time and distance have made these ties weak, of course. But, maintaining a degree of connection to my friends and coworkers ensures that I never forget what their lives are like.

5. Increasing the diversity of your network

Thanks to my time working in tech and all of my international travel, I have a fairly diverse network that spans the globe. But, I also have a diverse network that spans professions and socioeconomic classes too. I’ve spent time with billionaires, and I hang out with people who are barely getting by.

Diversity in your network is essential for a variety of reasons. Unfortunately, we tend to befriend and connect with people who are similar to us. Believe it or not, we also tend to have genetically similar friends (how freaky is that?).

However, research has proven that more diverse teams generate the best outcomes. This diversity includes backgrounds, education, socioeconomic status, profession, industry, gender, race, and age.

If your network is homogeneous, it’s time to shake things up.

“A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean.”

Your weak ties are weak because they are outside of your social and professional bubble. And that’s exactly what makes them so valuable. Diversify your network to become more creative, collaborative, empathetic, and successful.

6. Increasing the power of your network

You’re limiting the power of your network when it only consists of the familiar people who are already in your network. They may introduce you to a few new people from their unique networks. But like attracts like, which isn’t always good.

I see this happen all the time. People in a specific profession make friends with other people in their profession and have a network mostly filled with individuals near their experience level.

* College students have a network full of other students.

* Junior designers have a network full of other designers.

* Real estate agents are connected to a bunch of other agents.

However, your weak ties will help you build a more powerful network that spans professions and industries and includes people at higher levels of influence.

My weak ties, for example, introduced me to CEOs, VC partners, and angel investors. Now, they are in my extended network as new weak ties (no, we aren’t buddies who golf every weekend).

7. You are viewed as unique

This benefit is a funny one that I discovered over the years of my career. It’s related to the old saying that “familiarity breeds contempt.”

“Though familiarity may not breed contempt, it takes off the edge of admiration.”— William Hazlitt

Your friends, family, and colleagues are all too familiar with your stories. They are so accustomed to you that they may even take you for granted at times.

Many years ago, I did many speaking tours when I was the VP of Consumer Products for Yahoo Search. I would present to organizations inside the company on the main campus in California. I also traveled internationally to present to our offices in London, Barcelona, Bangalore, etc.

Recently, I’ve given talks and workshops to tech teams in the U.S., but also at conferences in other countries. Looking back on 15 years of doing this, I noticed an interesting pattern:

The less familiar the audience was with me, the more valuable they thought my talk was. They viewed me as unique, and that somehow made me more interesting to them.

It’s nice to feel appreciated. Everyone should have the experience of being treated as special, interesting, and entertaining. It’s a nice confidence boost!

The strong ties in your network may not think that interacting with you every day is all that special. But, the people who are weak ties will value time with you and make you feel appreciated.

Light up those weak ties!

It doesn’t matter what you want to accomplish professionally; activating the weak ties in your network will help you more than you think. Reaching out to your acquaintances — old and new — will increase the diversity, power, freshness, value, and uniqueness in your professional social graph.

However, this doesn’t mean that you need to transform your weak ties into strong ties. That’s impossible. It’s too hard to maintain strong ties with a large group of people.

It’s really more about creating a stronger, broader network of weak ties and not letting those relationships completely fade away. If that happens, they become absent ties. It disconnects those other networks entirely from you, and potential opportunities vanish.

Reactivating old relationships was a lot harder a few years ago. You may have only bumped into these people thanks to business trips, conferences, industry events, or a chance encounter (e.g., seeing someone at a local cafe).

For example, I spoke at a conference in Melbourne, Australia, about two years ago. I met some wonderful people, and we connected on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. But, when would I ever see them again under ordinary circumstances?

However, now I can just set up a Zoom appointment and catch up with someone halfway around the world. Some of these new acquaintances joined my career community, and now I can chat with them there.

Are you ready to reconnect with old friends and colleagues? Are you ready to meet some new acquaintances to add to your professional network?

We’re only a click away when you subscribe, and I add you to my premium community and private office hours channel. Hope to see you there!

⬆️ Scroll to the top if you want to listen to my expanded discussion of this topic! 🎧

Want to join my career community?

If you’d like to be a part of my private community of ambitious professionals who want to be more successful in their careers, simply subscribe now, and I’ll send you an invitation. After four years, it’s no longer open to the general public. Once you’re in, you’ll be able to participate in our exclusive office hours every week!

Are you ready to turn a $15/month investment into thousands of dollars of increased income every year? That’s exactly what has happened for many members of my community.

However, I do know that not everyone is ready to become a paid subscriber yet. But, there is a great way you can support my work without spending any money:

📣 Recommending my newsletter on social media 📣 

It only takes a few seconds, and it helps grow my business so I can continue making time to write it.

I'll even provide some copy and paste text to make it easy to share on Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Thanks in advance!

I've really been enjoying the Invincible Career newsletter by Larry Cornett (@cornett). If you want to get ahead in your job and you aren’t subscribed yet, you’re missing out.

https://newsletter.invinciblecareer.com

This week’s office hours topic

⭐ Office Hours - Nurture and Reignite Your Network 

Larry Cornett is a leadership coach and business advisor who also hosts a private mastermind community for solopreneurs and entrepreneurs who want more accountability and support. If you’re not interested in starting your own business someday (or accelerating an existing one), this community isn’t for you.

Larry lives in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with his wife and children, and a gigantic Great Dane. He does his best to share advice to help others take full control of their work and life. He’s also on Twitter @cornett.