How to Get Ahead When You Have Nothing to Offer
Weekend Motivation. — Your #1 Newsletter for Accelerated Learning
Education itself is a putting off, a postponement; we are told to work hard to get good results. Why? So we can get a good job. What is a good job? One that pays well. Oh. And that’s it? All this suffering, merely so that we can earn a lot of money, which, even if we manage it, will not solve our problems anyway? It’s a tragically limited idea of what life is all about. –Tom Hodgkinson
How to Get Ahead When You Have Nothing to Offer
Dear young reader,
You’ve been lied to.
Ever since you were a little kid, you were told that in order to be successful, you have to train, prepare, study, and pick up certain skills. Only once you have these skills can you take life by the horns and get ahead. Once you are qualified, only then can you get that job you dream of, land that raise, make that money, or move to that neighborhood in which you want to live. So you study hard, you specialize, you stay up late and take internships in the industry in which you work.
But you struggle still to get ahead. It feels like everybody else is moving up in their game as you move up. As you try to get ahead, so does everybody else who is nearly as skilled. So you study harder. You work to become more qualified. You put in long hours in entry-level jobs and work your way up the corporate ladder. The stakes keep getting higher as you move higher and it still seems like you can never get ahead.
Or even worse, you have nothing to offer even after all of this studying and working towards qualifications. Sure, you may have the bare requirements for the job, like a college degree or a fancy internship, but when you come to the table and a potential employer or business partner or investor asks you what you can offer, you feel yourself grasping for straws and bullshitting your way through the conversation.
How did this happen? You followed the advice of your well-meaning guidance counselors, teachers, career coaches, and mentors. You went to the best college you could afford and you didn’t slack off.
Or, you’re just starting down this process and you have an uneasy feeling in your stomach that what I just described is what’s going to happen to you.
I’ve seen it happen firsthand. I’ve spent the last four years traveling the country and working with young people to accelerate their careers. I can feel the uneasiness on college campuses and the look of “what have I gotten myself into?” in recent grads’ eyes.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Listen to this…
Top 7 Podcasts of October 2017 — Here are this month’s top podcasts! The list includes classics like “The Way I Heard It” with Mike Rowe and new discoveries like “The Vanished,” a podcast about missing persons.
What are your favorite podcasts? Let us know which ones we should listen to next month by responding to this email, leaving a comment on the article, or hitting us up on social media. 🎧👂
Friday Finds…
If We Hope to Reduce Ignorance, We Need to Be More Open-Minded —
“I have found triangulating with highly believable people who are willing to have thoughtful disagreements has never failed to enhance my learning and sharpen the quality of my decision making.” — Ray Dalio, Principles
Why we need more controversy (not less) — Today, there is an ‘echo chamber’ effect seeping into academia, media, and our daily social interactions. If you choose not to partake in this echo, others will feel threatened and you will be attacked. “Every brilliant idea was controversial the moment before it changed the world.” We must entertain controversy, not shut it out, if we ever hope to make real progress.
The Motivation Machine: How to Get & Stay Motivated for Any Goal — “Across language learning, company building, and any kind of creative project, there is a dip: A long period of low motivation, little excitement, and unrewarding challenges… the biggest problem we face with completing our projects isn’t productivity or time management, but motivation management. When you’re sufficiently motivated to accomplish something, you’ll move heaven and earth and start a war with Troy to do it.”
Have an awesome weekend!
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