Humor
Born to Business with David Business, Linkedin Warrior (№19)
Dream Bigger
What you want is not what you think you want. Trust me, when you get hoards of people dumping their career ambitions into your inbox, you learn to see the truth behind a dream. Too many people think in terms of specific job titles. You have to abstract the larger dream from your current small-minded one to understand your true goal. I stumbled across this idea at Thanksgiving sitting at the kid's table. Why I was sat there is a point of contention currently in litigation, but what I learned from those tots was invaluable.
As we waited for turkey, a young boy named Wyatt told me he wanted to be a ninja. I laughed. Obviously, Wyatt does not want to be a literal ninja. It is a dead-end job with no benefits and a one-way ticket to murder jail. But when I probed Billy “why?” his answer astounded me.
“I want to swing a sword, do flips, and run fast so one can catch me!”
Swords and flips are cool, but running so fast no one could catch him? That’s the gold. He wants to get away with stuff. From that nugget of truth, Wyatt can build an entire career. Do you know how many jobs look for people trying to skirt consequences? Through the aspiration of the job title “ninja”, he revealed his true value in an organization.
Once this lightbulb went off in my head I quickly asked the kids around the table about their dreams. I uncovered the following.
Princess = a desire to manage real estate
Fireman = ability to handle hot situations
Astronaut =willing to be metaphorically shot into the abyss
I was blown away. I felt like I was on some sort of corporate acid. I thought of all the times someone told me they wanted to be an “account manager.” That’s not what they wanted! What they wanted is to procure a stable of revenue horses. There are a million jobs out there for that person besides account manager. Hopped up on the power of abstraction, I turned the revelation ray gun onto myself. But then something happened...
I instantly got defensive about my wants. “I can be the CEO of Coca-Cola and Apple at the same time! It is possible!” I quickly realized this methodology requires an ability to step outside yourself. Or, in your case, an aspiring business guru to cradle your ego while it gets smashed into pieces.
This process is not about poo-pooing your aspirations. It is about purifying your goals into the most potent form possible. When you know that what you want is not the job of a CFO, but unfettered access to goof around with other people’s money, you widen your ability to succeed.
So stop asking yourself what you want to be, and start asking what you want to do. The more roads on your map, the less traffic you’ll hit.
David Business is an aspiring CEO, self-accredited LinkedIn expert, and personal associate of writer Kenny Gray. You can connect with David on LinkedIn for even more innovative content.
