So Good They Can't Ignore You

4 min read

Some of these points have been inspired from this website.

Summary

The book focuses on the reality of how people end up loving what they do. It demystifies the concept: “follow your passion”, and details alternative strategies.

Rule #1: Don’t Follow Your Passion

  1. The Passion Hypothesis is the biggest myth in occupational happiness. It says that “The key to occupational happiness is to first figure out what you are passionate about and then find a job that matches this passion”, the author argues against this.
  2. He mentions some incidents of people like Steve Jobs, proving that successful people like him (who is famous for the concept “follow your passions”) didn’t start off because he had a passion for the thing they do.

Rule #2: Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You (Or, the importance of skills)

  1. The traits that define great work are rare and valuable, if you want these traits, you need rare and valuable skills. These skills are called Career Capital.

  2. Adopt the Craftsman Mindset where instead you focus on what you can offer the world. This is in stark contrast to the Passion Mindset where you focus on what the world can offer you. The craftsman mindset focuses on becoming better and improving the quality of what you produce. It focuses on becoming so good they can’t ignore you, regardless of what you do for a living.

  3. The concept of Deliberate Practice is mentioned where you deliberately stretch your abilities beyond where you’re comfortable and then receive ruthless feedback on your performance.

  4. 5 Steps on applying the deliberate practice in your work:

    1. Step 1: Decide What Type of Capital Market You’re Competing In. There are two kinds of markets, a winner-take-all market and an auction market. In a winner-take-all market, there’s only one type of career capital available and only one that matters. In the auction market however, there are a variety of relevant skills that could lead you to getting the job, in other words, there are a variety of career capital available.
    2. Step 2: Identify Your Capital Type. This step makes you figure out what are the relevant skills that are needed in order to be great at your job. In the winner-take-all market, it’s pretty straightforward that it’s that one career capital, however in the auction market there’s more flexibility. A useful heuristic mentioned is the open-gates opportunities present. In other words, those opportunities to build capital that are already open to you, then you work your way up.
    3. Step 3: Define “Good” . Having a clear view of what good means is important. This step forces you to think about where you want to be and how you can achieve it using deliberate practice. This definition will be different for different people.
    4. Step 4: Stretch and Destroy. Deliberate practice requires you to be uncomfortable, as it is something that is not enjoyable. The important thing is to push beyond your comfort zone and get immediate feedback to steer you in the right direction.
    5. Step 5: Patience. The acquisition of career capital will take time, therefore, it is necessary to be patient and ensure that you pour all your effort into the capital you seek. The final sentence given in the book before the summary is: You stretch yourself, day after day, month after month, before finally looking up and realising, “Hey, I’ve become pretty good, and people are starting to notice”.

Rule #3: Turn Down a Promotion (Or, the importance of control)

  1. The author here explains that once you’ve acquired a certain amount of career capital, your next step is to invest in those traits that define great work. Discussion was made about control, and the common pitfalls that people fall into.
  2. The law of financial viability: when pursuing a project or career path, it’s crucial to seek evidence that people are willing to pay for it. If that evidence exists, it’s a good sign to proceed; if not, it’s better to reconsider or pivot.

Rule #4: Think Small, Act Big (Or, the importance of Mission)

  1. This rule focuses on the importance of having a mission in your work. Having a unifying focus for your career, a sense of purpose, can make your work more meaningful and impactful.
  2. A good career mission is similar to a scientific breakthrough, discovered in the adjacent possible of your field. You will need to acquire enough career capital to be able to get into the cutting edge of your field. Once you get into this cutting edge, you can then start to see these missions.
  3. Think small, act big. Instead of focusing on a huge experiment with little feedback, focus on small experiments that yield concrete feedback, and use this to guide you into the direction surrounding your general mission.

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