Q: What is one thing you would tell your younger professional self ?
A: Read History, not just geopolitics, but industry history too
As a young 22 year old, I started my career in tech. I learnt coding on the job and worked my way up a few ranks. Soon I started to become bored, I was good at the technical skills but I was not motivated. I thought to myself Just because I am good at this, doesn’t mean I should continue to do this.
I was yearning for a purpose.
Why am I doing what I’m doing ?
I thought maybe going to business school will solve this. It helped but did not solve it completely. I was still yearning.
I learnt much later, after missing a few balls, that while I was acing my immediate work and developing my skills, what I did not pay attention to was the big picture. Honestly, I did not know how to.
If I were to talk to my young 22 year old self, I would give the below lesson.
Balance Zoom in with Zoom out
- Zoom in you will learn on the job, Hopefully you will be surrounded by smart people with more experience than you. You will sniff up their experience. You just have to show up and be disciplined and play the game. Usually the incentives are aligned in a way that you will learn.
2. Zoom out — Here things get tricky, no one really tells you how to do this. People say Do-Networking , what they are essentially telling you is you need to develop a better perspective.
I find 2 things help in developing a Zoom out view
- Understand Industry history — Choose the medium of your choice, Podcasts, Books, Webinars, etc. but get your homework done in the industry history.
The things you should make a note of are these 7 questions -
- Who are the different actors ? (The players, the clubs, the referees)
- How does the money flow in the industry ?
- What was the game, how did the rules evolve over time ?
- How did the Winning formula evolve over time ?
- Who emerged as the champions, and Why ?
- Who were the players who had promise but did not live up to the potential, and Why?
- Who were the underdogs, who became champions, and Why ?
2. Network with the biggies — Find a way to develop a network with the seniors in the industry. Seek out mentorship/ guidance. Their perspective will really help develop your reading of the history.
Reading history and mapping it with the above 7 questions will help you avoid the common traps and help develop some winning patterns.
But remember, this is still a game, and you have 5 lives. You can always save a checkpoint and restart. So don’t worry so much about the what you haven’t done. You can always start now.
Cheers,
Gamer Dad
