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Career Tips - Issue # 31 (June 2006) FREE weekly newsletter dedicated to your career development. You'll need more than 10 minutes to read this newsletter. The Uninvited Guests: Welcome Them! Guests, as you know, are of two types: Those whom we meet because we invite them and those who meet us unexpectedly without prior invitation. Isn't it normal to avoid too many uninvited guests? That may, however, not be a wise thing to do when it comes to your career. In fact, it makes huge sense to do the opposite for our own career's sake: Whole-heartedly welcome uninvited guests and hope to meet as many as possible. Let me show you why. I am going to share with you stories of three highly successful people whose careers were shaped not by any "career planning" or formal advice from some career professional, but by people who walked into their lives unexpectedly. And these intruders--let's call them uninvited guests--gave away the best career guidance their hosts could ever hope for.
Gardner, who never knew about his father while growing up, was
raised by his mother, a school teacher. After school, under the
influence of his uncles, many of whom belonged to military services,
he enlisted for navy. After a four-year stint with navy, he became
a medical supplies salesman. But Gardner was fed One day, while taking out his car in a public car park, Gardner saw someone in a Ferrari looking for an empty parking slot. Gardner stopped him and offered his own place, but he put up a strange condition for the favour. He asked the Ferrari owner to answer two questions: What do you? How do you do that? The Ferrari guy turned out to be a stock broker and his monthly income was $80,000--per month! That encounter left a deep impression on Gardner. He started knocking doors of brokerages for getting into a training programme to learn all about stocks. After few failed attempts, he was selected by one brokerage, and he happily left his medical salesman job. But when he came to start the training, he found that the man who had hired him had been fired from the job. Now Gardner was left without a job and without any prospects of training as well. Things got worse for him. He was put in jail for parking fee violations. Next, his wife left him, leaving with him their son to look after. Now, he had no job, no money and a child to take care of. In the face of such severe adversities, Gardner, by now homeless, finally got into a brokerage training programme. But with meagre stipend, he often faced a stark choice: To spend the money for buying food or to spend it on getting a proper place (some hotel/motel) to sleep. He chose to eat and sleep with his child in the toilet of a train station. Along with all the hardships, Gardner finally completed his training and got a job with Dean Witter. Later, he became a top producer at Bear, Stearns & Company. Next, in 1987, he established Gardner Rich & Company, Inc., which is now an institutional brokerage providing debt, equity and derivative products transactions. Today, Gardner, who lives in Chicago, is a legend, a rich man with three homes and what not. He is also the author of just released book, "The Pursuit of Happyness." To cap it all, Columbia Pictures is making a movie starring Will Smith on Gardner's life. An extraordinary career! If you look back at Gardner's career, you would find that he really fought hard, but that chance encounter with the Ferrari driver--an uninvited guest--was the most important turning point of his career.
When Ted was 22 years old, he happened to work with Danny Meenan, a radio reporter. One day, they happened to visit a bar together and that's when Danny casually asked Koppel what he wanted to be. Koppel expressed his desire to go into politics and become a Congressman. When Danny heard this, he first made a face as if he had heard something obscene and then told Ted, "You would be a lousy Congressman." He didn't finish before showering some unsolicited advice on Ted. Danny said: "It appears you are going to be pretty good reporter. You should do what you're good at, and do what you love. And I think you are loving journalism." Ted Koppel dropped his own idea of going into politics and instead followed Danny's advice. His great career proved Danny was right. Again, Ted Koppel never sought Danny's advice in the first place, but Danny intruded into his career orbit like a typical uninvited guest and shaped it for ever.
At the time when they eventually met, Jim was toying with the idea
of starting a management consulting firm. What he didn't know was
that one meeting with Drucker would change the trajectory of his
career for ever. When Drucker came to know about Jim's idea of going
into management consultancy, he asked Jim Collins heeded Drucker's advice and, today, he is a one of the most well-respected management thinkers who works as an independent researcher and author. Again, Drucker came into Jim Collins' career orbit uninvited and left his mark for ever. So, who is waiting to come into your career orbit and shape your future? You'll never know! >>CAREER TIP:Despite all the emphasis about career planning and "where do you see yourself in 5 years?" kind of questions, careers are often shaped by completely unexpected encounters with people who have no stakes in our career. Normally, we like to plan, control and feel frustrated when things don't turn out to be as per our expectations. But, it seems, the journey of career or for that matter life itself, is a series of expected and unexpected events. Perhaps, more unexpected than expected. And in the unexpected may lie the best seeds of wisdom, guidance and solutions. It appears that the right people can turn up at the right time
to give us the right advice, provided we stay open to meet people
whom we never planned to meet and pay attention to their advice,
which we never asked for. All we need to do is to change our attitude
towards uninvited guests. Not avoid them, but welcome
them! Atul Mathur FORWARD IT: Would you like to share what you've just read with any of your friends? Click below to send a link to your friend. To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter, send a blank e-mail to:subscribe Career Tips ***Copyright 2006 Atul Mathur*** |
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