Be Brazen, Be Radical
I can't count how many of my peers have relayed the following conversation after graduating college over the past 5 years.
Parent: Why don't you have a job yet?
Graduate: Because I haven't found anything I want.
Parent: But you need a job. Didn't you have three interviews last month? Why didn't you take any of those jobs?
Graduate: Yeah, I did. But I none of those jobs were right for me and I'm going to Ireland next month.
Parent: I just don't understand. Why are you wasting your college education?
Graduate: Mom! Dad! Chill out! Don't worry, I'll find something when I'm ready.
Parent: I just don't understand.
From our parents' generation to ours, the idea of career has changed leaps and bounds. Twenty somethings aren't boldly leaping straight from classroom to cubicle; we are not taking a job just to have one. Today's graduates are waiting to start careers for a lot of reasons. But this is just one way the generations differ. So, since our parents have such differing ideas about career, who are we supposed to look to for advice? I'll tell you who - Penelope Trunk. She's the woman behind the book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success.
What's ironic is that most of the people who relayed the above parent/child conversation to me would put their parents 1st on the list of "Who to thank for my approach to career." My parents said it over and over again; my friends' parents said it every chance they got as we were growing up; teachers repeat it as mantra; they all said, "Find something you love to do. Don't just settle for the money." So parents, THANK YOU!
Guy Kawasaki said about Brazen Careerists, "Take everything you think you 'know' about career strategies, throw them away, and read this book because the rules have changed. 'Brazen,' 'counter-intuitive,' and 'radical' are the three best descriptions of Trunk's work. Life is too short to be stuck in a rat hole..."
That Guy...always hitting the nail on the head. Here's the thing: when perceptions drastically shift from generation to generation, the newer generations absolutely NEEDs someone willing to be "radical" and "counter-intuitive" in their advice giving. Penelope realizes that we can't climb the same corporate ladder our parents climbed because, in our view, that ladder doesn't even exist anymore. To achieve our goals, we want, and have to be, irreverent and free-thinking and experimental, trying new jobs, taking in the world, traveling, trying to understand ourselves and life before we can understand just what it is we want to do.
I'll leave you with some of Penelope's own words. But before I do, I'll tell you that Trunk's advice is perfect for two things: 1)Finding what you want; and once we find it, 2) Approaching our career in new, thoughtful, and brazen ways. The Trunk words forthcoming apply to #1, and this is advice I personally relate to extremely well:
There are lots of paths to happiness and most of them include an annoying job or maybe even ten. The most important thing about an annoying job is that you make sure you are learning and growing. Before you throw a fit and leave, consider that the most successful people are curious, with a broad range of interests, and can learn from anyone.
I spent the majority of my twenties doing jobs that raised eyebrows--as in "Are you a loser?" But I learned a lot from each job I had because any job--really, any job--can help your career if you let it. Each person, no matter how weird, has something to teach you. And each business has a gem of genius because, hey, they’re making enough money to pay you, aren’t they?
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