Lesson 1: Choose difficult things when you start
In the words of Naval Ravikant:
If you're evenly split on a difficult decision, take the path more painful in the short term.
Frankly speaking, work-life balance was NOT a thing I had when I started out my career. Not at all.
I worked overtime and was always on the move in the first few years of working experience. I'm not proud of this choice, but as it was "painful" in the short term, it definitely paid off in the long run for me.
I learned that it's very important to:
1. Work hard to learn fast
2. Prioritize learning over money
3. Accept risks
4. Fail early
5. Exercise, read and travel as much as you can
Lesson 2: "Find your passion" was an useless career advice for me
It took me 4 years in college to study general business, 2 internships in startup and VC, 2 full-time jobs in consulting & investment, 1 freelancing gig and many side projects to discover that marketing is my long-term career. At that time, I was in my mid 20s.
I learned that:
1. "Find your passion" is quite cliche and generic. If you don't know what you like, start experimenting to discover what you DON'T like first.
2. Internship is the best way to test what you like and don't like in a real environment. Be bold and creative. I'd recommend to have about 3 internships before commit to a full-time job for years. Unpaid internship is fine as long as you're learning.
3. Internship and freelancing do not limit to just students. If you already have a full-time job and get stuck, remember that you can always take a break and take a step back to experiment something else.
4. Getting jobs at XYZ company is just a beginning.
Becoming a high performer at work is a journey that requires motivation, hard work and resilience.Don't optimize your career just to get a job. Aim to create and sustain high performance.
Lesson 3: How to approach politics in the workplace
People hate politics at work.
But in a way, 'politics' can be simply defined as 'relations among individuals' in which 'individuals' refers to 'coworkers' in this context.
Some key points I learned over years:
1. "We rise by lifting others" so don't be evil at work
2. Build trust through transparency
3. Praise in public, criticize in person
4. Manage expectations effectively (manage up and manage down)
5. Be a leader/manager as you want to have if you are a team member
Check out other posts I wrote about career here.
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