Early Career Advice

How to Be Lucky¶

You make your own luck. There's a great experiment that I can't cite, but it has stuck in my mind since I was a child. They identified people as lucky and unlucky, and asked them to count the number of photographs in a newspaper. The unlucky people took a long time to count the photographs, while the lucky people took a very short... See more

Make sure your job has clear price signals for success and failure. Be suspicious of roles that compensate you with status or non-financial rewards.

I like to think of careers as less like ladders and more like lily pads. In retrospect, some hops might look as if they were on a path, while others might look like a digression. Some might prioritize work, others might prioritize life outside of work. But whatever you hop to next, know you’ll have the chance to hop again. Little in life is

... See more

Make decisions easy for busy people. You will rise fast in your career if busy people like working with you. Here’s a tip: when you have a problem to solve, come prepared with a suggested next step. If you have a question, phrase it in a way they can answer yes/no. If there are multiple options, lay them out and ask them to pick one. Try to avoid

... See more