✅ 10 career mottos I (try) to live by -- part 1

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Hi everyone,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Started off my 2026 chatting with a few mentees. No specific agenda, just enjoying each other’s company and talking life. A few themes came up during these conversations, which I thought could be interesting to share here.

I divided the key takeaways into a 2-part series, allowing for more details on each so you can apply them in your own life/career, as opposed to offering just generic thoughts.

Most of these were picked up in my last decade of work experience across Tech (Google), Finance (Citigroup/Partners Group), and now, running my own businesses.

Enjoy!

Part 1 (first 5 career mottos):

1. Amplifying your strengths > obsessively fixing weaknesses.

Most of us grew up being repeatedly told to ‘work on your weaknesses!’ While it’s important to a degree (e.g., working on a weakness to the point where it doesn’t meaningfully hold you back), in the long-run the highest ROI of your time will almost always be spent pouring yourself into what you’re naturally good at & compounding it. You’d also find it much more interesting, motivating, and easier to keep at it.

2. Find your edge. Own it.

Related to point #1 – a surefire way to stand out in the workplace, or anywhere in general, is to be indispensable. What can you do better than most other people? Own it. During my time in Google Marketing, for example, I ran point on our campaign results measurement/analysis. It’s not as sexy as working on the actual multi-billion dollar campaigns, but I could do it better and faster than everyone else. It made me indispensable, and helped me earn top marks during performance reviews. Meanwhile, hundreds of other marketers were vying for a limited set of high-visibility campaign opportunities – much more competitive, and up to luck (to a degree) on whether you’d be placed on any of them.

Similarly, I’ve had colleagues who….

• …..owned messy Procurement Processes for their Sales team (which nobody else wanted to touch – “I’m in Sales, why would I waste time doing operations?”). But, they’re good at it, enjoyed it, and added value in a way that nobody else did.

• ….called dibs on AI workflows back when it was nascent, because they naturally enjoyed tinkering with frontier technology. This was back when nobody else was really paying attention to AI in the workplace (pre-2022). This colleague became the go-to ‘AI Guy’, and ended up blazing through promotions.

• …..and many more examples 🙂. If a comprehensive ‘case study’ here could be helpful, let me know by responding to this email!

3. Nothing loses the respect of a mentor faster than….

…..asking for their advice, and then doing absolutely nothing with it. Self-explanatory!

4. Glorifying failure is overrated. 

Hot take, I know. But virtually 99% of all failure-related advice is “you have to fail to succeed” and glorifying failure in one way or another.

Sure, failure is a natural byproduct of shooting for the stars, BUT if you can help it – learn from others’ mistakes instead. With ChatGPT/Gemini, you literally have a treasure trove of data / case study at your fingertips. If you have people in your network who have walked the walk, even better – what mistakes have they made, and how can you leverage their experience to avoid the mistake yourself in the first place?

If you do fail, and yes everyone will, make sure you squeeze as much learning out of it as possible.

5. Invest in relationships early (before you ‘need’ it).

Most people wait until they need something (e.g., a job) before they start networking. By then, it’s either too late, or a massive uphill effort. 

The best time to start is yesterday, the second best time is today. Plant the seeds early. Build relationships, give freely, introduce friends to opportunities, look for ways to be as helpful as possible in others’ lives.

Over time, goodwill compounds. When you finally need a favor, support comes naturally.

If you’re in school – genuinely get to know others (including upperclassmen, career advisors, etc.), line up mentors, ask for guidance but look for ways to add value to their lives whenever you can, and be intentional about keeping in touch.

Best,

Vincent (feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn 🙂)