💯 10 career mottos I (try) to live by -- part 2

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Hi everyone —

This week, part 2 of my career/life mottos (you can read part 1 here).

As mentioned last week, 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!

#6-10 🙂 as follows:

6. Be a value-adding individual.

When you ask for something – an intro, referral, advice, etc. – the other person is subconsciously thinking, “What’s in it for me, and what have you ever done for me?”

Adding value means both:

1) Actively THINKING how you can bring value to others, even as part of your ask.

❌ “Hi John, can you come speak at our event?”

✅ “Hi John, saw you’ve been posting a lot of Entrepreneurship thought-leadership content on LinkedIn. We’re running Event X in March, with ~100-150 student attendees from the Entrepreneur Club, most of whom are keen on building a future business of their own. Could be a very relevant audience for you. Checking if you might want to be one of panel speakers, alongside 2-3 other startup founders?”

 2) The PHYSICAL ACT of helping others over time to compound goodwill. 

At times, you may be in a position where neither are true (e.g., when you cold-DM someone for a coffee chat); consequently, the response rates are low. The best response rates are when one or both the above conditions are true.

***Important note: value is a subjective term; make sure what you propose / what you do is actually deemed valuable by the other person! Otherwise it won’t carry as much weight, and may cause misalignment – e.g., you think you helped out someone a lot, but in reality, it didn’t do much for them.

(Understanding what others value – even if they don’t explicitly say it – is an art in itself; we’ll cover this in a future newsletter 🙂).  

7. Energy is contagious. 

You’re not always going to be the smartest in the room (also not something you can control!).

But what you CAN control is to always show up, give it your 100%, be fully present, and exert as much energy as you can. Your energy will lift up others around you, and leave a lasting impression. 

We’ve all experienced it – walking into an event or meeting, interacting with someone super excited / energetic, and subsequently you feel yourself lifted up, sitting taller, etc. Aim to be that beacon of energy for those around you.

8. Reframing works wonders.

One of the best (and most productive) career/life advice I’ve ever received is to consciously reframe negative situations by asking yourself ‘but how can this experience still be valuable? What can I get out of this situation that I wouldn’t have otherwise?’

This forces you to think creatively, takes you out of a victim state-of-mind (passive), and in many cases genuinely allows you to benefit in unexpected ways.

Random but hopefully illustrative example – I’ve been trying to drink less Coca-Cola for months, to no avail 🙂. Recently I had a small food poisoning incident where I couldn’t take much in. During this time, I was ‘forced’ to come off of my daily coca-cola routine. Following this break-of-habit, proud to say I haven’t touched a Coke (almost a week!). I hang on to this as something very tangible I’ve achieved only as a result of something less-than-ideal happening in the first place. 

Find yours! I guarantee there’s pockets of these in almost every adverse situation.

9. Just do it.

One of the most common questions I get asked – “there’s thousands of people who’ve taken your career courses / listened to you speak. Doesn’t that mean whatever you’re saying won’t help us stand out anymore, because everyone is doing it already?”

Don’t take this the wrong way but…..less than 5% of you will actually have the agency to act on all the learnings. Some people will implement a few changes, but most will do nothing – whether it’s finding an excuse to avoid (“networking won’t work for me because I’m introverted”), or putting it off to a hypothetical future.

Just by getting started today (whether it’s making those resume changes, asking for those networking coffee chats, etc.), you’re ahead of the curve.

10. Leave a place better than you found it.

In any given organisation, most people will treat their responsibilities by just going through the motions. Sticking to the status quo.

But the most successful people I know are always thinking about the next step, and how they can improve on existing processes and do things better.

Take student club leaders for example – the most ambitious ones not only nail the core JD (status quo), but also go on drive impact in new and creative ways.

For example, say you’re the President of Student Club X – ‘good’ ones will nail the JD (status quo) and stop, while ‘great’ ones obsess over questions like “are there new marketing strategies we can implement that’ll double our member base? Can we do events that fundraise 10X more dollars vs. what previous events have yielded? Can we create a new-and-improved set of career resources that’ll dramatically improve the job application success rate of our members in this tough climate?” etc.

The recognition from going above-and-beyond is usually just a ‘cherry-on-top’ (side note: yes, these sort of achievements will help for job applications. If I’m reviewing an application for my team at Google and the student has achieved all the items above for an extracurricular organisation, you bet I’ll give them a leg-up. Shows insane initiative, ‘go-getter’ attitude, ability to drive impact, and leadership. Someone who has a track record of making an organisation better just by being in it).

More often than not, individuals who do this are much more driven by the desire to scale lasting impact, and to leave a place better than they found it.

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Bonus: My most recommended book.

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie (close second: Atomic Habits). Gets into the crux of human psychology – how to influence others, build rapport, negotiate, and more. Increasingly important in today’s AI era!

Best,

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