Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck wrote the sub-title by Jon Acuff.
The title to this book caught my attention. Perhaps Jon Acuff could give me new insight on how I can perceive my work.
In his introduction piece, he related on how his neighbor Nate lost his job on a Friday. The people liked Nate, and he was great at his job, hitting his numbers for 8 years in a big company. But things changed and his role was no longer needed.
What happen if career ceiling starts coming in? The few options available include:
1) Getting a job at another company (delay tactics)
2) Doing a job that you do not want to do (becoming worst off)
3) Play along and die inside as long as you remain in the company (reality for most)
We all have this career repository known as the Career Savings Account. In it there are 4 elements (relationships, skills, character, hustle) where Jon explained in greater detail throughout the book.
1) Relationships
One of my take-away from the relationships segment is to continue to maintain good relationships with people we meet in our life. It can be from our school days, our ex-colleagues, people we met in professional or interest groups. It's good practice to keep in contact with them every though many people may be busy with their family or careers. In our relationship, there are some which we can regard them to be our mentor (advocate) in our career.
After reading this piece, I looked through my phone contact and started messaging some of my good old friends which I have not contacted more than a year.
2) Skills
Jon started by explaining on some key invisible skills such as the below:
Main:
1) Go to work, showing up on time
2) Adding value
3) Own your attitude
Others:
A) Exceed expectations
B) Be diplomatic
C) Express gratefulness
D) Show consideration for others
E) Focus on what matters (quality of work)
F) Play to your strengths and everyone else
G) Be flexible (environment)
H) Respect their gear (gadgets)
I) Continue your education
When we want to develop new skills, is it out of necessity of curiosity. It is at this point of the book where I started to think through the skills which I need to do my job better. Two necessity skills pop into my mind, they are 'Change Management' and 'Knowledge Management'. I immediately made my way to the library to borrow books on it. And moving forward, I will be attending a course on Acupuncture Pressure which is something of a curiosity learning for my side.
To develop new skill, the following need to be in place: Time, money, gear, access to experts and knowledge. Knowledge can be obtained from the library or the internet. But time maybe something which working professional may find lacking. There's two way in identifying time. One is a macro perspective of looking at our calendar year/month and setting aside time for learning. The second is the micro perspective where we look at the days and hours where we can squeeze out time for learning.
If we look at our time, we will realize we can get time from activities that are requesting resources without providing anything in return - such as Facebook, online gaming, watching TV, etc.
3) Character
He mentioned some typical bad character traits such as narcissism, dishonesty, pessimism, apathy. Good character includes generosity (which creates loyalty), empathy (how do we make people around bigger), being present (manage phone, computer and meetings).
The character portion is something that is linked to morality and an individual value system. For those with religion, their character are often guided by beliefs.
4) Hustle
Last is working hard. It means putting effort on our Relationships, Skills and Character. But do note that there are seasons to hustling. There are good times to hustle and certain times to not hustle. We have to be flexible on our dreams as we hustle. As we acquire more skills, strengthen our character and develop our relationships, we start to know our dreams better. It is important to note that focus important. As such, sometimes doing less is better.
