So Good They Can't Ignore You, Cal Newport - Steve Humer

So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport Golden Eggs • Craftsman Paradigm: Offer the world something great, and then you will get great things. • Mission Paradigm: Reach the cutting edge by dominating a niche, and then find a mission. Don’t follow your passion; let it follow you in your quest to become so good they can’t ignore you. Move from finding the right work toward working right. Set the goal to be the best you can be at whatever you do. “The key thing is to force yourself through the work, force the skills to come; that’s the hardest phase” “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin Rule #1: Don’t Follow Your Passion The Passion Hypothesis: The key to occupational happiness is to find what you’re passionate about, then find work. Self-Determination Theory: motivation requires three psychological needs – autonomy, competence, relatedness. Rule #2: Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You Passion Mindset – A focus on what value your job offers you. What the world can offer you. Craftsman Mindset – a focus on what value you’re producing in your job. What you can offer the world. Traits that define great work: creativity, impact, control. The traits that define great work require that you have something rare and valuable to offer in return. Three craftsman mindset disqualifiers: • The job presents few opportunities to distinguish yourself by developing skills that are rare & valuable. • The job focuses on something you think is useless or perhaps even actively bad for the world. • The job forces you to work with people you really dislike. Deliberate practice matters - requires you to stretch yourself just past your comfort level/receive instant feedback. Traits that define deliberate practice: strain and feedback. Step 1: Decide What Capital Market You’re In • Winner-take-all: only one type of career capital available, & lots of different people competing for it. • Auction: many different types of career capital, & each person might generate a unique collection. Step 2: Identify Your Capital Type Step 3: Define “Good” Step 4: Stretch and Destroy Step 5: Be Patient Rule #3: Turn Down a Promotion Step One: Acquire career capital. Step Two: Invest this capital in the traits that define great work. Control is one of them. The First Control Trap: Control that’s acquired without career capital is not sustainable. The Second Control Trap: The point at which you have acquired enough career capital to get meaningful control over your working life is exactly the point when you’ve become valuable enough to your current employer that they will try to prevent you from making the change. The Law of Financial Viability – When deciding whether to follow an appealing pursuit that will introduce more control into your work life, seek evidence of whether people are willing to pay for it. If you find this evidence, continue. If not, move on. Rule #4: Think Small, Act Big Step One: Gather Career Capital Step Two: Make Little Bets Step Three: Use Remarkability The Law of Remarkability – For a mission-driven project to succeed, it should be remarkable in two different ways. First, it must compel people who encounter it to remark about it to others. Second, it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking.

Created by: Steve Humer