Three Business Concepts to Help You Manage Your Career

On the wisdom to pursuing growth, meaning, and love

In the Spring of 2020, I was invited to give a speech in front of the graduating class in M.Sc. in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Sten K. Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship in Sweden’s Lund University.

Then, I was in the middle of a career change, and I had forgotten about this little speech until I stumbled upon it a couple of days ago. Looking back, and this was unintended, it now reads like a manifesto of why I had decided to quit a comfortable and prestigious corporate job, and threw myself into the uncertainties of entrepreneurial life.

It was relevant then -after all, it prompted me to take the leap. And it’s relevant now, as it reminds me of why I’m taking the more uncertain path to earning a living.

So, with some light edits due to the change of context, I thought I’d share that speech with those of you who, like me in the Spring of 2020, also find yourselves considering making a big career change.

Dear Graduating Class, M.Sc. in Entrepreneurship and Innovation of 2020:

As you embark on what I’m sure will be successful professional careers, allow me to share three thoughts that I’ll put in business terms.

Number One: Iterative Development

In the first year of my undergraduate studies, I failed nearly half of my courses.

I did much better in graduate school, but I had a super hard time finding a job after. When I finally did get a job, it was on a fixed-term contract basis. It took me another three years to secure a permanent position.

That was at a large multinational, where I built a successful digital business, but as the business grew more successful, they took it away from me, and gave it to other, more experienced managers, to lead.

Eventually, they handed back the business for me to run. But after years of mismanagement, the product in question’s time had passed, and all that was left to do was to pull the plug on my brainchild.

Later, I joined a startup. A good company with good people, but it wasn’t a good fit for me. After a particularly painful period of employment, I handed in my resignation. An incredulous boss stared back at me.

“I was going to fire you. I should have fired you first,” he roared. Talk about an ego-bruising! For the both of us.

By now, the little voice in your heads whispers: Surely, the organizers of this ceremony made a mistake. Why would they invite this loser to address us on our graduation day?

This is what the voice of experience would have to say:

Each job you ever hold will pay you in coin with a side called success, and another called failure. Flip it enough times, and you will get plenty of both, but flip it you must, if you want a chance at success.

If your career were a climb, and success the rock face, it would be smooth and shiny. Pleasant to touch, beautiful to behold. But slippery, easy to lose your footing and fall from it.

Failure is tough and gritty, but its rough edges also allow you to hold on to them and pull yourself up to newer and greater heights.

So, your career will develop in iterations, and let me tell you about the secret of people’s success: It’s what they leave out of their LinkedIn profiles. That’s the good stuff, and that’s why it’s secret.

There’s even a fancy name for all this: It’s called The Growth Mindset.

Number Two: Product-Customer Fit

While you iterate and develop your career, to thyself be true. And to be true to yourselves, you need to put your ego aside.

Sounds contradictory? I’ll explain.

Many times, faced with a decision between what I found intrinsically valuable and meaningful, and external markers of success, I picked the latter, for no other reason than to puff up myself in front of others.

You see, ironically, when you let your ego get in the way, you are letting others make the decision for you. This is because the result you’re optimizing for is what you think others are going to think about you, rather than what is truly meaningful for you.

I am not saying that money, recognition, or fancier titles are never the option to choose. There’s always a person, place, and time for that. The question is if you are the person in the time and the place for that.

So, to achieve career-person fit, be true to yourself, cast your ego aside, and go for meaning.

Number Three: Cost-Benefit Analysis

Make sure that what you chase in life is worth dying for.

Whatever you choose to do, you’ll pay for it with every day, month, and year you spend pursuing it, usually away from your loved ones. In other words, you are paying for it with your life, and the lives of those who love you.

You’re paying for it with the lives of those who love you.

So, on that happy note, congratulations, graduating Class of 2020!

And I wish you, not success in your careers, for I believe that your hard work and Lund University have amply equipped you for that already.

Instead, I wish you the wisdom to pursue: Growth, Meaning, and Love.

Thank you.