Top 10 Career Advice That DONT Work!

Top 10 Career Advice That DONT Work!

Follow me on LinkedIn, YouTube, and all popular Podcast channels - Anshuman Tiwari

Transcript

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Hi, everyone. Welcome back to your channel. Manage better on this channel. I bring to you tips and tricks on how to manage your life and work better. And more recently I've started bringing smaller videos on ways to manage your career better. And today's topic is one such topic. We often hear pieces of advice that sounds super smart. Almost magical. Very cute. And I actually call them to crap. Why? Because they really don't work. They sound great, but they mostly don't work in real life. Like, you know, people having this Elon Musk poster on their LinkedIn banner or on, on the wall. And thinking that the poster will work. For the longest time I had a Stefan Edberg poster on my wall. And I was a great fan of Stefan Edberg growing up, but in spite of having that post-it for years, I never picked up a tennis racket in my life. So you get the point. Having these posters, having these motivational quotes work only for a little bit, you know, it is almost like we are expecting magically that their properties, their motivations, their characteristics, their abilities will transfer into us because we have that poster on our wall. This does not happen, you know. And you needed me to tell you that this does not happen. I'm not saying we should not admire our heroes. We should have dreams. Just that we should not fall for these cute crappy lines. We should work hard instead. So let's look at some of these Cute Craps that I have selected for you. 10 common life advice tips that lead you astray that mislead you. They mislead many people to the extent that they stop taking action. So Cute Crap number one. Work smart, but not hard. We've all heard this one, work smart, not hard. This is complete nonsense. WorkSmart comes much later after working hard. When you learn a craft and you hone the skill. You will learn how it is done. Then slowly, you can start being smart about it. Nobody really starts smart. I was recently coaching a person called Rohan. He's been trying for a promotion. But he has been trying also to be extra smart and taking shortcuts at work. No. What happens is that the work is suffering and of course His desire to get a promotion is actually not working in his favor. Right. So point number one is which is completely nonsense is work smart, not hard. Point number 2. Compounding is the key to success. Yes. Sure. Compounding works wonders in finance, particularly in mutual funds and other similar investments. But in real life, success is often built brick by brick. You have to be laying those bricks. Of talent, skill, hard work. You know, maybe sometimes luck and then that wall starts showing up. So expecting compounding to kick start from day one is of course contrary to the topic itself. No, I was I've recently called somebody called Meera and I was delighted that while she was building a business she was putting consistent daily effort to improve her offering and skillset not waiting for that magical compounding. It will, of course kick in at some point, but not waiting for it is a very, very right strategy. Cute Crap number three. Follow your passion and the money will follow. This is total nonsense. You know, this has misled so many young people about following your passion and money will follow. You have sometimes no clue what is your passion? Right. So I always say follow the profession first, find a profession and follow it. And do you have any proof that this is your passion worth giving your life to. Do you have the talent? Do you have the skillset? Are you willing to put in that extra effort, lifelong effort to build that passion into something meaningful that would run your house. Please ask the person in the mirror. If the answer is doubtful. If the answer is no. Then that's not your thing to do. It all sounds very dreamy, but the truth is passion doesn't pay your bills. My good friend Papa CJ always says passion doesn't put bread on the table in a way saying that it doesn't pay the bills. Cute Crap number four. Think outside the box. This is a favorite in interviews and, many people talk about it and you would have heard of during appraisers or performance reviews. Think outside the box. But really speaking can we think outside the box we are in that box. We need to know what is in the box. We always perform within the box. There are limitations, resources, money, abilities. The outside the box concept came from one creative thinking exercise where, Nine dots had to be joined by one line without breaking the line or overlapping the dot. Now for that, you have to really leave the box and then return to the box. That I can understand. Forcing yourself to do this day in, day out is nonsense. I know of a software developer, Suman. She has been trying to be extra smart with all these out of the box thinking and the result of that she's now in a situation where she could lose her job. Only because she's always thinking out of this box, the proverbial box and never able to get anything done. So I would say master the basics and then try and innovate or improve upon it. Cute Crap number five. Believe in yourself and you can achieve anything. Really? Believe in yourself and you can achieve anything without talent without that work without any effort. This does not work in real life. Self belief is of course important, but it needs to be backed by a skill hard work, sometimes luck and much more. Take example, a good friend. He wanted to start a business. And I did advise him that, look, this does not sound like something you can do. I was not being discouraging, but I was not convinced. And sad to say I was proved. That the person jumped into the startup did not have any skill set, did not have the perseverance. And slowly that overconfidence turned into disaster. Believing that you have competence, doesn't make you competent. You have to have that competence to start with. Take care of a career. I don't believe that believing in yourself and you can achieve anything. Cute Crap number six. Be yourself. This one is a little bit tricky. You would have heard me saying that being authentic is important. Being yourself is important. You should not try and be somebody else. And so on. But it does not mean that you ignore the context that you ignore the situation you are in, that you ignore the room that you are in. I was interviewing a candidate recently. And she was being overly casual and just, you know, sometimes clumsy and. Careless. And when I questioned a little bit, she said that this is how I am I'm. I like to be myself and so on. Needless to say that. You know, I did not give her the role and I gave her some strong feedback as well. How she came across was careless and clumsy and not serious about the job. Why would I give a job to somebody like this? Nobody would. So being yourself is, is okay when you are in a casual environment, but where you have to get things done. Being yourself does not work in the longer term. You have to understand where you are and behave accordingly. Cute Crap number seven. Networking is everything now. I am a LinkedIn Top Voice. You know, me. I am still saying that networking is not everything. Networking is definitely valuable. It's not a substitute for hard work outcomes, results, talent, skill. And all of that. I've seen so many people coming up to me in conferences, trying to network. But they don't have anything to give to me. They are only looking for something from me. Why will I network back with such people? What is in it for me. Right. And this happens to everybody, right? So you want to network with people where you have a symbiotic relationship. There are many people who are great at meeting people and, you know, excellent at conversations and all of that thing. But they don't have anything when you double click, when you go down and peel the onion, they don't have anything to share. Don't be that person. Don't believe that networking is everything. Networking is something, but not everything you need to have hard work, talent, skill, abilities, results. And then the network will follow. Cute Crap number eight. Hustle 24 by seven. Again, nonsense. Again, nonsense. We hear this all the time, especially from successful people. What they don't tell you that, you know, that hustle thing happened when they found that passion and the hard work, everything coming together. But they also had a self discovery journey. Nonstop hustling can lead to burnout. You can't be working 24 by seven all the time. And if you're running a team it's even more toxic behavior because you will start expecting the same from others and they may not have the same motivation, effort, drive to do what you are doing. Focus on strategic effort, give yourself some time and of course, some rest. And then things start falling in place. Cute Crap number nine. Success is all about your mindset. Yes, success needs some positive mindset. But it's not the only thing. You will need a combination of skills and execution like I said earlier. I know people and I recently. The person called Gaurav who had a fantastic mindset, very learning mindset. But he was unable to translate it into action. So mindset is fine. But eventually you will have to act upon it as well. Cute Crap number 10 and the last one. Shoot, then aim, or just do it. This also does not work. I mean, think about it. Do you want to shoot and then aim. And there is, of course, this apparel brand which has this, just do it thing. Of course, they are trying to push you into taking action, which is fine. I understand that. But at work when your career is at stake? Taking action properly after thinking is more important than this reckless action. I've told you some examples of people jumping into startups, people trying to do things at their work without preparation and what happens eventually they have egg on their face. In some situation, yes, you have to be quick. But that doesn't mean that you shoot and then aim. So those were 10 Cute Craps in my language. These are 10 common pieces of advice. That sound great. Sound very cute, but don't work in real life. Remember the real world is very nuanced. It has layers. You don't know exactly what works, what work for somebody else may not work for you. So there is some caution required. To think about these things and then act on it. It's all about finding what works for you. If you've been watching this far and found this video helpful, don't forget to like share and subscribe and do comment with what did you like in this video, and maybe what you did not like in this video. If you subscribe, that gives me a lot of joy and confidence that I'm doing something right. And I will keep bringing such videos to you. Thanks for watching. Till the next time manage better. Thank you.