Can you still have a great career these days?
Society has led us to believe that a career
should always be ascending and it should make us loads of money.
It should basically give us everything a sense of belonging,
a sense of meaning, sense of purpose and fulfillment,
a sense of community and even a sense of identity.
You hear people say that all the time
I am a doctor, I am a lawyer, I am a photographer.
Not only that, but are also expected to start
low and work hard and grow
step by step into a better paid job and maybe get a promotion,
eventually reach a corner office and keep going up the ladder,
either in the same company or maybe in a couple.
Until at some point you reach your sixties or fifties
and you decide to retire, you get the package and you're done.
But is that still true?
Does that still apply in the times we're in right now?
The first line is you're going to have a career.
18 years into my own journey, three different employers, 11 different
jobs, three companies
that I've started myself, and lots of people
that I've hired, as well as over 100 people that I've coached.
I've come to the conclusion that there are at least nine
different lies that we are led to believe about careers.
And in this video today, I would like to talk to you about three of them.
And I not only want to discuss with you what they are,
but also what you can do about them so that you don't have to trade
happiness for success.
So let's go lie, number one.
Your job is your career
that could not be further away from the truth.
In fact, before we dove in, let's get things straight.
Let's define what a job actually is.
And I really love this definition from Jordan Peterson.
I think he absolutely nailed it.
I know a tiny fraction of people have careers, maybe 2%.
Okay. Most people have jobs.
And the definition of a job is an activity that you get paid for
because you wouldn't do it voluntarily.
And he's absolutely right.
A job is merely an exchange of time for money, nothing more.
The challenge comes from the fact that many people confuse
a job for a career because they associate this sense of identity to their job.
They believe that because that's what they do, then that's who they are.
But in my opinion, that is a flawed reasoning.
And if you've attended my most recent masterclass,
I've actually spoken there about the eight stages of career growth,
and in my opinion, jobs are only stage two.
Right after your education, you get out of college
and you go get a job that's trained your knowledge and your skills for money.
You trade your time for money.
In my opinion, in order for this to become a career,
you need to fulfill at least two criteria.
Number one, you need to become an expert.
You need to be so good at what you do after having put in the time,
the effort, the commitment, the elbow grease, the energy.
You have to be so good
that you have a compelling
offer for whoever is benefiting from your work.
That could be your employer, could be your customers.
It doesn't matter.
And then criteria number two is that you need to get fulfillment from what you do.
You need to get that sense of purpose and meaning
you need to be excited about the work that you do.
In order for it to be a career.
It needs to get you up in the morning thinking, Oh my God, I'm so grateful
that I get to do what I do every day.
And then you'd ask, But how do I find fulfillment
my job is boring or frustrating or is soul sucking?
Don't most people hate their jobs?
Well, that's line number two.
In fact, many people do feel like that
on most days, but that is because
of all these limiting beliefs that society has led us to adopt.
How many people have you heard saying, when you do what you love,
you make no money?
Be honest, or have you heard people say,
I really don't like my job, but it pays so well, it's too good to let go?
I know because I used to be one of them.
I used to believe that as well.
In fact, towards the beginning of my journey,
I worked for for very long, grinding, soul draining years
in one of the biggest consulting companies in the world.
And probably many people would have killed for that job.
But I was waking up every day feeling drained
and empty on the inside.
It felt like I had no meaning, no purpose, and I was making no impact,
but it was paying well, or at least I thought so.
And at that time, I was thinking, if I'm going to leave this job,
that pays me so well, it's going to be hard to find another one
that gives me both fulfillment and pays at least the same well.
Can you imagine what happened?
I left that job after four years, and then in the next job that I got,
not only did I have fulfillment
but it paid me 200% more.
Yes, you heard that right.
Three times more. The salary.
So it's possible.
But what do you do if you're in the wrong career?
You change it, right?
Oh, hey, but wait.
Don't you only get one career in your life?
Who said that your career should be a death row?
When did we start to believe that a decision that we make in our teens
when we have no experience and little to
no maturity should dictate the rest of our life path?
Of course you can change.
And what better time to make that change than now?
Listen.
What would the world look like if Brad Pitt stayed a limo driver?
Or if Walt Disney remained a newspaper editor?
Or if Ellen DeGeneres stayed a paralegal?
Can you imagine the fact that you only get one career in your life is a total myth?
Studies are showing that in the US, for example, people between 18 and 24
are probably going to make on average 5.7 career changes in their life.
And people between 25 and 34 will make 2.4 changes while people between
35 and 44 will make almost
three career changes or shifts in their life.
And that makes total sense, and that's the norm nowadays.
Most people end up doing that because they realize that not only do
they have the energy, appetite and willingness to grow,
but also they feel like they want to learn more and impact more
and have that sense of meaning and purpose.
However, even those studies are showing that
people on average make all of these career changes.
In fact, many people don't.
Many people are holding back and they choose to stay in the same career.
There are two reasons why people mostly decide not to change their career
path and stay in a job
that is draining, unfulfilling and frustrating.
Number one, is financial security.
They feel they need to have more financial security in order
to have the courage to change paths they feel
they need to have this pot of money that is sitting there in their bank
in order for them to feel comfortable or to make a career change.
But the truth is, not only do you not need a lot of money,
but also if you do things right
then you need to have a pay cut
when you shift your career path.
The other reason why people hold back
is the fact that they don't know what road to take.
They don't know what to do instead of dealing with that uncertainty.
They choose to stay with the painful
certain reality they have if they choose to stay in the job
that is draining them, instead of exploring the unknown.
Okay.
Now, we've talked about all of these false beliefs
that people tend to have about their careers.
So what can you do in order to actually be able to build one?
One that is not only going to give you the sense of success and achievement,
but also the sense of meaning and purpose and fulfillment.
Well, in my opinion, there are three things
that you absolutely need to consider.
Number one, you need to make sure that you have self alignment and clarity.
And this is incredibly important.
And I've touched on it just before.
Many people hold back in making career
decisions, as you've heard, because they don't know what path to take.
So making sure that you are getting crystal clear on what is it
that your ideal career would look like, what would you want to be doing?
What would you be good at?
What would people want to pay you for?
And really take that time with yourself to figure out what you would like to do,
but then also align that with your sense of
meaning and purpose and make sure that you have that
cohesion is going to help you a lot when you make career changes.
Number two is make sure you have certainty and skills.
And I'm putting these together because as I mentioned at the beginning,
in my opinion, in order to have a career, you need to get that level of excellence.
You need to have the level of skilling that is going to make you a subject
matter expert.
You need to work on your skills to get to a point where you have
that certainty that no matter what path you choose,
you are going to be driving a lot of value for whoever is going to work with you.
So it's going to give you this this confidence, this certainty
that it doesn't matter where you're going because you know your worth.
And then number three, you should have confidence and strategy,
and having a solid strategy is going to give you confidence.
And what I mean by this is before you make any decisions
and before you decide to leave your job cold turkey, you should have a plan.
You should have a very clear view of when is the right time
to change, which path you're going to take.
Which way are you going to approach it and how are you going to go about it.
Make sure that you work on a clear strategy before you make that career
change.
And I talk about that and more in my most recent masterclass
which I'm going to give you access to for free for a limited period of time.
So I'm going to link it down below and make sure you go ahead and watch it.
It is completely free
and you hopefully will get a lot of your career related questions answered
because we spend almost 90 minutes talking about how to find
and pursue your dream career.
Thank you so much for watching.
This is the first part out of a series of two videos.
Next time I'm going to be talking about six other lies
that people tend to believe about their careers and how to truly re-engineer
your brain and your mindset to equip yourself for success.
So thank you so much for watching.
Until next time.
Make sure you go ahead and watch the Masterclass.
See you soon. Five