Your First Seven Jobs

Twitter is our reading list, our microphone to the world, and a massive time-sink. But every now and then, it surfaces something really fun and candid. So it did today with the hashtag #firstsevenjobs, a chance for us to actually look back at how people became who they are, and the steps they took in their career. If there is one lesson in all this, it’s that the dots in our lives connect in unpredictable ways. As Steve Jobs’ wisely said once during his Stanford commencement address:

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

Our favorite seven:

Buzz Aldrin — One of the first two humans to land on the moon

A fighter pilot is probably a good way to become an astronaut but sometimes you just have to be a dishwasher and a camp counselor first.

Stephen Colbert — Comedian

Comedy is tough and sometimes it takes a lot of futons to break the fall. For a less circuitous route the comedy, it might be helpful to look at comedy writing jobs.

Michael Beirut — Legendary designer

Designing is about doing a whole lot of internships.

Chamath Palihapitiya — Venture Capitalist

We imagine that programming gigs helped with his rise at Facebook and in venture capital.

Aaron Levie — CEO of Box

The rise to the top of the cloud involved failure, magic and web design.

Stewart Butterfield — Founder of Slack and Flickr

Stewart made two successful products used every day by millions of people, and had time to be a baker and a cook (and a usability researcher which probably helped teach him how to make addictive products).

Of course sometimes it takes a lot longer than seven jobs to find your stride

Beau Willimon — Creator of the US House of Cards

Beau took 15 jobs to find his calling on TV. He spent time as an SAT Prep teacher, a barista and politics before he wrote his Netflix masterpiece.

And some people find their calling early

They find the job they love and take the time to get good at it, like Farhad Manjoo, acclaimed journalist and writer.