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Freaking Out: 5 Career Success Myths

Most career advice is misguided and, in fact, makes us worse rather than better. We think we have to be well rounded, to fit in, to stop procrastinating, to get more self-control, and to fix our weaknesses. But the surprising truth is that pursuing each of those well-accepted pieces of conventional wisdom will set you back in your career. Read on to discover why, and what you can do about it. You just may save your career before it is too late.

Myth #1: You need to be well-rounded

When I was a kid, I brought home a report card from school. I got an A in every subject, except English. There, I was getting a C.

How did my parents respond? Did they compliment me on my excellent work in most of my classes? Did they encourage me to focus my efforts on those areas where I was having success? No. Instead, they wanted to talk about English. What was I doing wrong? How could I do better? Was I trying hard enough?

They believed, as most parents, managers and employees do, that we all need to be well-rounded.

Fact #1: You need to freak out

Consider Shaquille O’Neal. He can’t shoot free throws. He’s terrible, always has been, always will be. This isn’t his only problem. He doesn’t shoot well from anywhere outside of five feet and he doesn’t even attempt three-point shots. He doesn’t handle the ball well either. In other words, he’s got a lot of bad grades on his report card.

Yet Shaquille has won four NBA Championships with two different teams and was named MVP for three years. During many of those seasons, other teams tried to exploit his weakness by fouling him every time he got the ball. They called it Hack-A-Shaq and it didn’t work. His teams kept on winning.

Shaquille is different than most people. He is more than seven feet tall and weighs 325 pounds. Because of his incredible size and strength, he only needs to be good at one thing: catching the ball and putting it in the basket from very close range. His good grade in this area makes his other bad grades irrelevant.

It is the same with you. You don’t need to be, and you can’t be, good at everything. Don’t try to be well rounded. Instead, freak out. Capitalize on your unique abilities and forget about your weaknesses. They don’t matter.

Questions to Consider:

  • What are my unique skills and characteristics?
  • How can I build on my strengths so that my weaknesses become irrelevant?

Myth #2: You need to fit in

We tend to do what other people are doing. We want to fit in. We don’t want to be different or unusual. We don’t want to stick out.

There is one big problem with this strategy; fitting in makes us invisible. If we do it well, no one can see us. We don’t get any attention.

If we fit in at work, we don’t get in trouble. We don’t get fired, but we don’t get promoted either. We don’t get interesting projects and we don’t get challenging tasks.

If our business fits in, everyone drives right by. No one stops. They don’t know we’re even there. If they do stop, they don’t stay long and they don’t buy anything because our products or services are just like everyone else’s.

Fact #2: You need to stick out

Hardee’s had a problem. It was going out of business. It was unable to compete with McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. Apparently, there wasn’t room for four major fast food restaurants.

When the other major chains began adding healthy choices like salad, fruit and yogurt, it seemed like Hardee’s would have to do the same in order to keep up. But it never added any of these items. Instead of copying the other restaurants, Hardee’s did the opposite. It created Thickburgers, huge, fatty, calorie-laden burgers that clogged arteries and gave people instant diabetes. Hardee’s didn’t try to fit in. When everyone else made their menus healthier, Hardee’s deliberately made its menu unhealthier. What was the result? The chain is no longer on the brink of bankruptcy and instead has started adding new locations.

Questions to Consider:

  • How can I stick out?
  • How can I do the opposite of what everyone else is doing?

Myth #3: You need to stop procrastinating

When I ask my students to list their weaknesses, the most popular is procrastination. In fact, in most classes, every student admits to having a problem in this area. Books, articles, seminars and blog posts on overcoming procrastination are universally popular. Unfortunately, they don’t work. People keep procrastinating. They can’t help it. Why is it such a problem?

It’s not.

Fact #3: You need to start procrastinating more

What do you procrastinate over? If you are like most people, and I’m not recommending that (see #2), then you procrastinate over activities that you don’t enjoy and that you don’t do well. You wait to do them until it is absolutely necessary because you’d rather be doing something else.

Procrastination is good. It is a sign that we have wandered away from our strengths, that we have strayed from those activities where we can have tremendous success. Instead of procrastinating less, we should actually procrastinate more. In fact, we should stop doing those activities altogether.

If this sounds unreasonable, read Jim Collins’ bestselling book, Good to Great. He explains that successful people and great organizations have a “stop-doing” list. They deliberately eliminate activities that they don’t do well or that don’t fit with their mission. Management guru Peter Drucker, referred to this as “organized abandonment.” Additionally, Marcus Buckingham argues that the most important thing to know about personal success is, “if you don’t like it, stop doing it.”

Questions to Consider:

  • What activities do I procrastinate?
  • What don’t I do well?
  • What don’t I like to do?
  • How can I begin eliminating these activities from my life and work?

Myth #4: You need more self-control

What do you want? Do you want to be more organized, lose weight, get a promotion or have a better marriage? Most self-help books have one primary suggestion on how to do this: use self-discipline to simply act differently. They argue that if we just wanted it bad enough, we’d be able to make the change. Because of this, we believe that if we just had more self-control, we’d be able to achieve our goals.

In this view, people are successful because they have self-control and others are failing because they lack self-control. I disagree.

Fact #4: You need to be more fuel efficient

Here’s a heretical thought: We all have the same amount of self-control. We don’t get more or less than anyone else. Successful people do not have extra discipline, they just use what they have more wisely. Similarly, we often have difficulty because we are using our discipline in the wrong places.

What are the wrong places? Fixing weaknesses, trying to fit in and fighting procrastination are the wrong places. These activities drain our energy. They sap our self-discipline.

How can we use our energy more efficiently? Build on strengths, freak out and embrace permanent procrastination. These activities are fueled by devotion, not discipline. They rely on passion instead of pain.

Devotion is more powerful and more abundant than discipline.

Questions to Consider:

  • What drains me?
  • What renews my energy?
  • How can I improve my fuel efficiency?

Myth #5: You need to fix your weaknesses

When things go bad, when we lose our job, when someone breaks up with us, when we don’t get the promotion, we assume that something is wrong with us. We search for our flaws, the reasons for our failure, and start trying to fix them. The reason that this doesn’t work is that there is nothing wrong with you. Yes, you read that right. There is nothing wrong with you.

Fact #5: There is nothing wrong with you

How does a sundial work? What does it require? It tells time by casting a shadow on the appropriate hour. It needs to be in the sun.

What happens when you put a sundial in the shade? Does it work? Of course not.

But is it broken? Is something wrong with it? No, it isn’t broken and nothing is wrong with it.

Then what is the problem? The problem is that the sundial is in the shade. It is in the wrong spot. The sundial doesn’t need to be fixed; it needs to be moved.

It is the same in our lives and our work. When things go bad, it is not because something is wrong with us. It is because we are in the wrong spot. The job or the relationship didn’t work out because it was the wrong fit.

Instead of fixing our weaknesses, we need to look for the right fit. We need to find situations that match our strengths, highlight our abilities, and bring out the best in us. We need to get out of the shade and into the sun.

Questions to Consider:

  • What activities put me in the shade?
  • How can I move out of the shade and into the sun?

Don’t believe the myths. There is nothing wrong with you. It’s time to start freaking out, sticking out, procrastinating more, and using less self-control.

What’s Your Freak Factor?

Are you trying to fit in or freak out? Are you flaunting your weaknesses at work or trying to fix them? Take this career success quiz to find out where you rank from Level 1: Future Freak to Level 5: Superfreak.

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Are You Building A Freak Factory?

Are you trying to make your employees fit in or freak out? Are you allowing them to flaunt their weaknesses at work or are you trying to fix them? Take this managerial assessment quiz to find out where you rank from Level 1: Supervisor to Level 5: Chairman of the Board.

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The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness

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© 2009 David Rendall. All rights reserved.

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