The Key To Making Any Job Better | Deep Questions With Cal Newport
Chapters
0:0 Cal's intro0:40 Rare and valuable skills
1:45 Leverage
00:00:00.000 | Oh, well, let's just roll on.
00:00:02.000 | Larry has the next one.
00:00:04.200 | Larry says, "Hi, Professor Newport.
00:00:05.760 | I loved your book, 'So Good They Can't Ignore You,'
00:00:10.040 | but it seems to me that only a small minority of people
00:00:12.640 | can possess rare and valuable skills at any given time.
00:00:16.480 | Does this mean only a minority of people can succeed
00:00:18.940 | in achieving the ideal laid out in your book?
00:00:20.880 | If not, what would a world where most people
00:00:24.560 | are so good they can't be ignored look like?
00:00:27.320 | Thank you very much for your time."
00:00:28.960 | Good question, Larry.
00:00:30.520 | It allows me to clarify something.
00:00:32.440 | Yes, the big idea in my 2012 book,
00:00:35.640 | "Be So Good They Can't Ignore You,"
00:00:37.700 | is that you should build what I called
00:00:40.240 | rare and valuable skills.
00:00:42.240 | Use those as leverage then to take control of your career,
00:00:45.920 | move it towards things that resonate
00:00:47.680 | and away from things that don't.
00:00:49.520 | More recently, I might talk about that
00:00:52.200 | as use that leverage to get closer to your ideal lifestyle.
00:00:56.480 | Same idea.
00:00:57.560 | So Larry is saying,
00:00:58.960 | well, how many people can really have
00:01:00.680 | rare and valuable skills?
00:01:01.760 | How many people are gonna be a world-class writer
00:01:04.200 | or mathematician or something like this?
00:01:05.600 | And this is an important clarification.
00:01:08.280 | Your definition, Larry, what you're thinking of
00:01:10.500 | when you think of rare and valuable skills is too broad,
00:01:14.840 | too strict, I should say.
00:01:16.580 | When you're thinking rare and valuable skills,
00:01:17.980 | you're thinking at large scales of competition,
00:01:22.480 | rather, that you're the best.
00:01:25.960 | That's way too strict and ambitious.
00:01:27.460 | When I say rare and valuable skills,
00:01:28.680 | I mean, you can do something for your employer
00:01:30.980 | that is valuable to your employer,
00:01:34.000 | and they don't have a lot of other people
00:01:36.160 | who can do that for them right now.
00:01:37.700 | So the scope for rare and valuable skills
00:01:39.760 | is your employment situation.
00:01:42.200 | So everyone can have rare and valuable skills
00:01:46.100 | that give them leverage.
00:01:47.460 | I mean, let's get concrete.
00:01:48.360 | Let's say you went to college,
00:01:50.980 | you have an entry-level job,
00:01:52.500 | you're working at a communications non-profit
00:01:55.200 | outside of Boston,
00:01:56.680 | you have your fancy degree,
00:01:58.280 | but you're starting at an entry-level job.
00:02:00.080 | You're basically, they'll call you an associate,
00:02:02.860 | but you're kind of like an assistant
00:02:04.240 | to someone who's higher up.
00:02:05.380 | You're helping organize projects
00:02:07.000 | and trips that they work on, something like this, right?
00:02:09.000 | A very standard sort of entry-level job.
00:02:11.000 | What would rare and valuable skills mean right there?
00:02:14.640 | Well, you are reliable.
00:02:19.240 | You accomplish the things you say you're gonna accomplish.
00:02:21.480 | You're organized.
00:02:23.540 | You learn and understand whatever it is
00:02:27.200 | that the people you assist do,
00:02:30.060 | so you can make their life easier.
00:02:32.600 | Maybe they work with a particular,
00:02:35.340 | and I'm thinking about an actual person,
00:02:36.740 | actual job here.
00:02:37.580 | This is actually a job my wife had out of college.
00:02:39.740 | So I'm using this as an example,
00:02:41.020 | but let's say they work with a particular tour provider.
00:02:43.500 | They would take teachers on tours.
00:02:45.020 | Getting to learn how that tour operator works
00:02:48.220 | and the people over there, that's all valuable.
00:02:50.220 | That's very valuable to this employer.
00:02:52.100 | And they don't have other people who can do this for him.
00:02:55.020 | They could try to hire someone else,
00:02:56.460 | but they don't know if they're gonna be good or not.
00:02:57.820 | That gives you leverage.
00:02:58.660 | Now you're able to move up.
00:02:59.740 | You have leverage over what you wanna do
00:03:01.300 | and what you don't wanna do,
00:03:02.260 | and you can start moving up in that job.
00:03:03.900 | You move up to the next level, you do that next level well.
00:03:07.180 | You get good at it.
00:03:08.540 | You master elements of it that are specific to the job.
00:03:11.220 | Other people don't do it as well as you, and you move up.
00:03:13.060 | So what I'm trying to say, Larry, is rare and valuable
00:03:14.880 | is relative to the employer,
00:03:17.460 | or if you're self-employed,
00:03:18.340 | relevant to your specific clients.
00:03:20.620 | Everyone can build rare and valuable skills
00:03:22.980 | in their particular context.
00:03:24.700 | That career capital is leverage.
00:03:26.700 | Use that leverage to keep moving your job closer and closer
00:03:30.740 | to supporting the lifestyle that you desire.
00:03:33.460 | (upbeat music)
00:03:36.040 | (upbeat music)