I once led product at an apparel brand, and had Merchandising intern. We'll call him Darren.
Working for me was Darren's first job. Two years later he was a Senior Merchandiser.
His next job was Director, for a $4B company, who promoted him to VP shortly after.
6 years later Darren was President of a pro athlete's startup... and he was barely 30.
How did Darren go from Intern to President in under a decade?
He started with the end in mind. He knew he wanted to run a company, and he wasn't much interested in waiting until he was 50 to do it.
So, he identified the key characteristics of the leaders he admired, and simply decided to adopt them immediately, instead of later. This triggered a personal and professional transformation that I had the pleasure of witnessing.
Darren became a major part of the model by which Intro Limited assesses top talent.
Here are 7 ways we can all be like Darren:
FOCUS ON RATE OF IMPROVEMENT
Most ambitious and talented people are gradually headed in the same direction. What matters is the speed at which they’re moving.
In his book Talent, Tyler Cowen highlights the essence of career acceleration: rate of improvement.
He tells the story of an investor who regularly interviews founders to assess their aptitude, essentially placing a bet on their future success. This investor likes to meet these founders a few times across a few months, and then measure their growth as a person and leader between those meetings.
It's not enough to interview them once and see how great they are -- he wants to see how great they're becoming.
Improving 1% annually takes 70 years to double your effectiveness. Improving 35% annually reduces that to 2 years. Anything in between is pretty great too.
Fast learners add more value to their employers and take quantum career leaps.
PUNCH ABOVE YOUR WEIGHT CLASS
Read any average career advice, and it’s all about the tiny wins. “Bring a printout of your resume to the interview" or "negotiate a $2k higher salary, and that will compound to $73k over the course of your career.”
The problem is with that is A) high performers don't care about $73k and B) $73k won’t buy you a latte in 30 years.
Play bigger games to win bigger prizes. Don’t quibble about work/life balance as a 23 year old. Find work you can’t get enough of, and then attack it with vengeance (and perhaps a bit of aggrandized confidence).
Ed Latimore said “Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as much as you because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves.”
After placing many candidates in creative leadership roles, we can confirm this is true. Intelligent people are afraid of going after too big an opportunity, only to fail and get fired.
But people don’t get fired for being over their head. They get fired for not rising to the occasion.
Go after the most aspirational job you possibly can. Then level up.
It doesn’t get easier, you just get better. And you can’t get better if it doesn’t get harder.
"The best way to make significant progress is to force yourself into a place you don’t belong." -- Dan Koe
DO FUTURE THINGS NOW
Everyone's heard of the "accomplish your 10 year goal in 6 months" concept. As a realistic goal, it's pretty silly. But as a thought experiment, it's brilliant.
If you have only imagined the next two years of your life, that third year could hit you like a smack in the face.
Picture who you want to be. What does that person do? Do those things now. Some examples:
Learn how to manage up.
Negotiate like someone more advanced than you.
Focus on your unit value, not your annual salary.
Start delegating. People struggle with this: I know execs who still book their own travel and do their own data entry and then complain about how busy they are. Begin, right now, the journey toward... not becoming like them.
SHARE YOUR OBSESSION
People who are obsessed with their vocations tend to get really good at them. Then they start to develop their own point of view on the topic.
They learn, they keep learning, they gain clarity. Pretty soon they're seen as the expert. People start asking them for advice.
You want to become that person, and the best way to do that is to write and publish. The exercise in itself will clarify your point of view, and will bring your differentiators to the forefront.
Lean into those differentiators. Don't be the best, be the only.
HAVE THE BEST IDEAS
I once led a design team on which the most junior member, Tom, was by far the most "in touch" with the world that our brand lived in.
More than any of his teammates or superiors, he was obsessed — he read the blogs, knew the brands and designers, nerded out on their processes and references.
This didn’t necessarily make Tom the best designer, but it made him the least dispensable designer on the team.
Every week he came to the office with new intel, new inspiration boards, new ideas, new energy.
Everyone else quickly rallied under him because that was much easier than going out and doing what Tom was doing.
To them it was work; to Tom it was fun.
“If you work at an open minded organization, you’re the boss as long as you have the best ideas. Because if you have the best ideas, what you say, goes. Even if you’re at the bottom of the totem pole. Truth doesn’t care about status.” - Naval
BE COOL
The problem with some talented people is that they believe they should be paid for their talent alone. The same goes for experienced people.
Both become frustrated when they learn how the world really works.
If you want to hopscotch your way through job levels, you need help. You need advocates. You need supportive community layered on top of your talent. Which means you have to be nice.
Opportunities are everywhere. People in positions of power are constantly looking to dish out jobs, advice, mentorship... but they need a worthy recipient.
Be excellent to others. Radiate value, expertise and generosity to everyone around you. Make a friend by offering something vs. asking for something. Be the glue that holds together a high caliber social circle. Become a magnet for good luck.
Be someone that people want to help. Not because you’re helpless, but because you’re helpful.
GET OVER YOURSELF
Advancement is usually about leadership, and leadership is about service. At every level of the game, you advance by making someone else’s life better and easier.
You will need to front-load major effort and selflessness at first, for a jump-start. Your elevated quality of life will come later.
Remember the marshmallow experiment? Ability to delay gratification is a predictor of success.
