One of the most influential mentors I’ve had in my career was a Marketing leader who was always pushing his team to aspire to, and aim for, career-defining moments.
His logic was based on a simple question: what do you want to be able to look back on, with real pride and satisfaction, when you retire? Those “remember when…?”, and “I did that!” moments, rising above the essentials of doing a good job.
As he cajoled and reminded us, you have to be intentional about building career-defining moments and working hard to make them happen. A few key ingredients:
Embrace every opportunity to think big – even when it’s not obvious or ostensibly required.
Ensure your business plan always has (at least) one ‘shoot for the moon’ initiative that could be award-winning.
Don’t be constrained by the limits of other people’s ambition.
Create your own playbook – one that’s defined by your own passion and curiosity.
Harness the energy that thinking big naturally generates: it will inspire you even further.
It’s a mantra I have carried with me ever since. And it’s taken me to some wonderful places: the photo at the top captures one such career-defining moment I’ll be reflecting on with pride, when the time comes to put my feet up.
As I look ahead to that day, I would add one more ingredient to the checklist, that my own journey has taught me:
6. Consider how the work will contribute to something bigger. Bigger than the near-term objective at hand, and bigger than one’s own ambition and satisfaction.
I’m lucky that my work has never been, or felt like, a means to an end. But when you can use it to advance lasting change and progress, when you align it to a greater purpose or mission, that’s when you move into the realm of building a true legacy.
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