We all know people who excel at multiple endeavors, who meet good fortune at everything they try. Rather than chalk this up to luck, Larry Weidel, a 40-year financial services veteran and author of Serial Winner: 5 Actions To Create Your Cycle of Success, breaks it down into five steps that anyone can take to create their own repeat success:
- Don’t Hesitate, Decide
- Don’t Just Do It, Overdo It
- Don’t Quit, Adjust
- Don’t Just Start, Finish
- Don’t Settle, Keep Improving
The book is targeted to success in all areas of life, but I found it particularly relevant to career success. My favorite takeaways?
1. To keep moving forward, you have to keep making decisions.
Much of career planning is indeed a series of decisions. You decide to take a job, but then you decide to grow that job by taking on bigger clients, projects or responsibilities. Once the bigger role is absorbe, there are more decisions – to grow further, to move laterally, to change industries. When you stop deciding, you stagnate professionally.
2. Why do we have the word “pioneer” in our language? Because we need a term for all of the people who do things that nobody else has ever done. And they are everywhere.
Many career changers I hear from are particularly stymied because they feel like no career out there exactly matches what they want to do. That could be true – hence creating your own opportunities, either by building a business around it or by selling an employer on crafting a role around what you want. Look for these pioneers by talking to happy, successful career changers. As Weidel points out, they are everywhere.
3. When we’re planning, we have to balance our excitement about an idea with the probable returns on that idea and how capable we are of pursuing it right now.
At the same time, I love this reality check about balancing excitement and ability. Career changers, as well as job seekers and experienced professionals alike, should take an objective look at their desired next career step. Look at the profiles of people doing what you say you want do – are you competitive?
4. There’s planning and there’s overplanning. Overplanning is just another form of doubt creeping in to kill your excitement and enthusiasm.
Here is another good reality check, but in the opposite direction. Are you mired in the research? Are you planning too much for contingencies, rather than for the actual goal? Too many hopeful career changers, first-time entrepreneurs, and aspiring managers stay too long in the planning stage.
5. If you only do the things you have to do – and even those not very well – you’ll lead a small and limited life.
Every successful executive I have closely worked with, either as a recruiter or a coach, went above and beyond their role. They embraced the bigger job before they got it officially. If you only do the things you have to do, you’ll have a small and limited career.
6. You don’t get just one second chance. You get chance after chance to achieve what you really want. As long as you don’t fall down, roll over, and quit.
If you haven’t gone above and beyond before, if you haven’t let yourself dream bigger to possibly be a pioneer, if you haven’t in the past decided to stretch, you still can now. Market conditions are continually changing, which means new career possibilities are created (social media strategist, anyone?). Maybe you overlooked a possible promotion a year ago – there are other opportunities.
7. Sometimes quitting is the best first step to adjusting your direction toward the life you really want. That’s not quitting; that’s changing directions. That’s upgrading.
I see even the smartest professionals fall into this persist-at-all-costs trap, especially aspiring career changers from highly paid, competitive jobs like banking and consulting. Sometimes your interests and priorities shift, and quitting is actually the brave, wise next move.
8. Serial winners stay in control by focusing on what they can do next and then doing it. Others lose control when they stop in their tracks and let their imaginations keep them from taking action.
I see this when even sought-after candidates get stuck on the job that got away – overanalyzing why an interview didn’t lead to a callback, or a callback didn’t result in an offer. Or when an otherwise high-performing professional laments that one project that got assigned elsewhere, or a client that didn’t close. Yes, it’s helpful to see if you can refine your job search or better negotiate for that next assignment but you will never know exactly why a decision is made. Focus on what you can control –close the opportunities in front of you.
9. The end of the process of winning is no different from the other part of the process – problems are going to crop up….A last-minute problem can feel like the last straw. What do serial winners do? They stay on high alert.
I love that Weidel points the particular danger that occurs towards the end of a long-awaited goal. I see this a lot with job seekers in late stage interviews – their energy is flagging, they’ve gotten complacent and have not kept up-to-date about developments since they started the process (interviews can last weeks, even months. Business conditions change!). If you’re called back for yet another meeting, when you thought the process was done, don’t get frustrated or make it a “last straw.” Make every interview as crisp as your first.
10. Serial winners are good at saying no.
Even an ambitious professional doesn’t need to take every networking meeting or every project. There are very good reasons to say no, even to tempting opportunities.
Caroline Ceniza-Levine is co-founder of SixFigureStart® career coaching. She is the co-host of the upcoming free webinar series, Confessions of a Former Recruiter, running September thru November. Connect with Caroline on Google+.
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