All retch and no vomit....

Forums: Life At Work, Careers, Advice, Working, Career Advice
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I came across this short video today that reminded me of the best career advice I ever got:

"You want to be a photographer? It's easy. Find a way to exchange pictures for money. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that you'll always get to decide what to take pictures of."

What made it such great advice is that for the first time I really understood that I could take, say, an office job to finance my interest in photography or I could take a job doing photography to finance my photography.

Sure, I struggled with the "sell out" thing for a while but looking back I see that there was very little retching and really no vomiting.

What about you? What was the best career advice you ever got?

Here's the video:

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Type: Question • Score: 14 • Views: 5,219 • Replies: 29

@boomerang,

Maybe it's just a lifelong bitterness of never getting any discernible career advice but that video and the speaker is either ubernaive or just lucky to be born into a family of wealth where one can turn a several month long hobby/dream (or worse moving from hobby/dream after hobby/dream after hobby/dream) into a full blown career after months and years of failed attempts into a viable career.

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The best career advice I ever got was to keep my priorities straight. They are:

1) my health
2) my family
3) my job

This was from my boss in a Fortune 100 company whose work ethic motto was, "whatever it takes". Every once in a while there was a good guy among the hard asses. I was lucky enough to work for one of them.

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@tsarstepan,

I certainly wasn't born into a wealthy family.

Reading his bio he doesn't seem to have been either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Watts

Maybe the difference is having a singular intention instead of following a new hobby or dream ever few months. He seems to have spent his life on the same path. I was like that too.

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@JPB,

I think your priorities were spot on. Balance between work and life is so important and once in a while we catch a break by working for someone who understands that.

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"Your boss doesn't want to hear about the problem. He wants to hear about
your solution to the problem."

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@George,

That really is good advice.

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The best way to solve a problem at work is to assign it to a very smart lazy person. That person will come up with a solution (smart) that's fast and easy (lazy).

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@Roberta,

Now that's smart and shrewd advice Roberta. Very Happy

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@Roberta,

Yes your post perfectly distinguishes an intellectual from a technocrat or better said between success and small minded pretentious mediocrity ! Well done ! Laughing

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My boss gave me this advice. She got it from her father. A miltary man.

And she was talking about me! Very smart. Not especially lazy, but always looking for something easy and fast. I got this bit of advice when I complained that I got all the problems assigned to me.

I think it's great advice, too. Practical, intelligent, and a great use of resources. I remembered it when I got to be the boss.

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@Roberta,

I read a short story, once. "The man who was too lazy to fail" or something like that.

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Be hypervigialant about not making too many downgrades of your dream/vision....keep pushing

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@Roberta,

I love that, Roberta!

1 Reply

@boomerang,

I don't, as in real life the lazy person will just walk.

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@hawkeye10,

Yes!

If my teacher had added that to his speech I might have avoided that awful time working with a team of personal injury lawyers......

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@ossobuco,

I strongly disagree, osso. Lazy doesn't mean irresponsible. It doesn't mean unprofessional. It doesn mean unambitious.

You can't just not do something at work because you're lazy. At least not for long.

My boss considered me lazy because I was always looking for an easy way out. I put in long, hard hours. But they would have been longer and harder if I hadn't been lazy in the sense that I wanted to find easier and faster ways to do things--so that I could do less.

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Never take a promotion unless you're ready for it.

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@Ceili,

What constitutes readiness? If people in general wait until they're "ready," they could potentially be waiting for the rest of their lives. It might be just better to take a leap of faith with promotion matters, then adapt and handle it as necessary, and accept what may come.
I mean, as long as politics and/or favors aren't involved, if someone is chosen to be next in line for a promotion, the upper level have seen something in that individual that makes them the best person for the position.

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@Ceili,

You're right. That's kind of a restatement of The Peter Principle, isn't it?

"Managers tend to rise to their level of incompetence."

2 Replies

All retch and no vomit....

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