You Have To Eat Shit Before You Can Eat Steak

I was getting my hair cut last weekend and was getting to know my barber a bit. I asked her how she got involved with the barber shop, what she was doing beforehand, that kind of thing. She’s still very early in her career, but has a lot of healthy, pragmatic ambition and has a good idea what she wants to do long-term. She can’t be older than 25, has some college (no Bachelor’s degree), but long story short, she has a heck of a lot more business and career sense than a lot of the new college graduates and working professionals that I’ve had a chance to connect with since I entered the working world.

To provide some context here, I work in career services and consult with clients on a daily basis on giving them the tools they need to take the next steps in their careers. For a lot of new graduates, and even some professionals whom have been in their careers for a while now, there’s a large trend that they cannot, but more specifically, WILL NOT take a job that is ostensibly “beneath” them, even when they really NEED a new job. Even more nuanced, a lot of new graduates with barely any working experience will pass on opportunities that are not directly in line with what they want to do.

For example, new grads will wait months on end for marketing job postings, but will pass on the dearth of sales and customer service opportunities available. Aspiring HR professionals will fly by administrative/clerical work in order to wait on something directly involve in recruiting, hiring, or labor relations. Professionals looking for management opportunities, with no management experience, will pass on opportunity after opportunity because they don’t want to do anymore day-to-day work.

Far too many people are afraid are averse to the idea of working themselves up in a company and just want the perfect position right away. People will pass by bread, ham, and lettuce every single day in search of the perfect sandwich. When in reality, they just could make their own damn food and get on with their lives.

Back to my barber. Months ago, she was in the market for a new job. She was leaving a salon and wanted to learn more of her craft. There were some barbershops and salons in the area, but she had heard of the reputation of this current barbershop and she wanted in. Even though she had her license and had barbering experience, she ended up joining the shop as an administrative assistant because it was the only opening that they were hiring for at the time. She was doing scheduling, paperwork, and customer service (in other words, the “bitch work”) as she waited for a barber seat to open up and she could take on her own clients. And guess what! Months after doing that work, one of the barbers left the location and she waltzed right into her seat. The shop didn’t even put a job posting up because they had already come to know her work ethic and she meshed well with the team. Easy decision.

She knew that she wouldn’t be doing the administrative work long-term, but instead saw the opportunity as a springboard for doing what she wanted to do: manage her own book of clients and learn to cut hair and style better so that she can open her own shop someday. And she’s now learning from some of the best in the business as she develops her own craft.

Life is a competition, an unfair one. And just like any competition, you’re going to want to look for the inside track. And this might mean that you have to do something that you don’t want to do. My barber got her ideal job even before it even opened up and she was making money and learning while doing it.

And this applies to every position, be it a new company or a promotion: you have to eat shit before you can eat steak. You want the perfect job, you have to work for it and do the hard work it takes to get there. That’s the game — if you want more opportunities, you have to do what others will not think or want to do. You can be an entitled dreamer or a diligent doer, but you’ll find that the doers are often the ones that are actually moving forward.

And I really like the cut so I will be returning there. That matters, too.