Defining Career Success: A Conversation with Laura Gassner Otting

Career success… every American’s dream. Something we all want to one day achieve. I mean, no one wants to work a 9-to-5 and be miserable for the rest of their lives, right? We go to school to get an education because we’re told it will lead to better jobs and a better life. We’re told the higher we climb the educational ladder, the higher we can see our salary increase. Let’s face it; who’s waking up at 5/6 in the morning off of 3 to 4 hours of sleep after a hard night of drinking to go to classes or go to work every day just to do it (btw, if this is you, I don’t feel bad for you.)? Don’t forget about the people clockin’ in those extra hours at work, coming in the office those extra days, taking on those extra projects… Is it just to say we did it, or is it to climb that corporate ladder and one day say we ended up being successful? In my attempt to uncover a clear and concise meaning for career success, I looked to an influencer who many would agree has accomplished many great things in her professional career: Laura Gassner Otting.

Laura Gassner Otting is a keynote speaker and confidence catalyst. Laura was previously a Political Appointee for the White House and helped found the national service program AmeriCorps. Laura was also Founder and CEO of Nonprofit Professionals Advisory Group, or NPAG, an executive search firm serving nonprofits, foundations, universities, and advocacy organizations. Today, Laura is a globally touring professional speaker, from colleges to conferences to corporations around the world, to an US Army base in Japan, to a TEDx stage in Boston. She is the Founder of Limitless Possibility, a niche consulting firm working with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, executives, and thought leaders to get them unstuck and achieve extraordinary results. Laura is the author of Mission-Driven: Moving from Profit to Purpose, and the upcoming book Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life, set to release this coming April.

In December of 2018, we reached out to Laura. I had the opportunity to call her up for a no-holding-back phone interview. What I looked to gain from this interview was some professional insight from Laura on her journey to her amazing career success, tips and tricks in the game, and how she would define career success for the younger generation. Here’s more from my conversation with Laura.

First, for those who don’t know who Laura Gassner Otting is, please tell us who is Laura Gassner Otting and what have you done.

Laura: I am an author, a speaker, and career expert. I spent 20 years interviewing individuals for c-suite positions and nonprofit positions. I found, ran, and sold my own search firm. The people I have interviewed were all successful. Everybody was happy.

What is your definition of success when it comes to a career?

Laura: I define success as a career that feels right to you. Most people go to the right school, get the right training, etc. to chase a job or a promotion. However, I see most people do this and end up hating what they do. People need to find their calling. Find out what’s your calling and build that into a career.

Take a look back at your career. Picture 20-year-old Laura. Do you have any tips you would give your 20-year-old self starting your career?

Laura: I actually wrote a LinkedIn article about speaking to my younger self titled “What I Wish I Knew at 22 — Life Advice”. At 20, you don’t have to have it all figured out. Change is okay. I had a conversation with a young woman today who was really stressed, and I told her if this is going to be the most interesting thing in your life, you will be miserable. You aren’t defined by your last success any more than you are defined by your last failure. I’ll send you a link to this article I wrote in your email after this interview.

What do you think is the biggest career obstacle facing Millennials today?

Laura: I would say expectations. The fulfillment of external expectations and not looking into what gives us consonance. Too often our future careers are based on someone else’s expectations. Just because some random person seen that you like to debate and decided that you should be a lawyer, you go to school for law and end up being miserable and hating your career choice. I have a book coming out titled Limitless. This book will help readers discover their consonance, how they align what they do with who they are to achieve their limitless potential.

You’ve written a few books such as Mission Driven: Moving from Profit to Purpose, and the Kaplan reference book Change Your Career: Transitioning to the Nonprofit Sector. You have a new book coming out titled Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life. Please tell us more about your upcoming book.

Laura: It is about the 4 C’s. Your calling, your connection, your contribution, and your control. Calling is a gravitational pull towards a goal larger than yourself. Connection gives you insight into how your everyday work serves that calling by solving the problem at hand, growing the company’s bottom line, or reaching that goal. Contribution is an understanding of how this job, this branch, this paycheck contributes to the community you want to belong, the person you want to be, or the lifestyle you’d like to live. Control reflects how you are able to influence your connection to that calling in order to have some say in the assignment of projects, deadlines, colleagues, and clients. If you have these 4 Cs, then you can achieve consonance. It is about manifesting the values of your daily work. Defining for yourself what your calling is will define how you work.

You’ve amassed a number of accomplishments during your career. What’s next for Laura Gassner Otting?

Laura: Well, I plan on spending 2019 on a book tour. To be completely honest, I don’t know what’s next, because I write my plans in pencil. I got invited to a TEDx talk and my whole life changed. I was shocked to find that speaking at events about what I love could turn into a career. I didn’t know! If I had written all my plans in pen, all of this success and the interviews and the speaking events, none of this would have happened.

What do you define as career success? Is it happiness in your career field? Financial wealth? Living comfortably and stress-free? Climbing as high up the corporate ladder as you possibly can? Not having to worry about how you’re going to pay that bill next week? If you’re still struggling to find the right definition, here’s one for you; Career success is what you make it out to be. There’s no clear-cut definition of what career success is. It’s your career and your success. I mean, who can dictate what career success means or should mean to you besides you? Let’s take janitors for an example. People may downplay janitors, but if a man’s been doing janitorial work for 20 plus years and he truly enjoys his work, then he’s pretty successful if you ask me. Who are we to judge? Who are we to approve or disapprove someone’s meaning of success?

Do what you wanna do. Do what you love. Do what makes you happy. Don’t allow anyone to define career success for you. Take Laura’s advice and find your calling. Find what gets you out of bed every day. Find purpose in your career. And hey, even if it may not be right for anyone else, it may be just right for you, and that’s the only confirmation you need.