Blog

I get asked quite often, “How can I build a recession-proof career?”

And I am always left wondering, “Is it possible to have such a recession proof career?”

What if we asked a different question: Is it possible to walk without ever falling?
Then how is it possible to build a career without creating space for failures?

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — JK Rowling

It is through the process of falling, that we learn the art of walking.
It is through the process of failing, that we learn the art of growing.

What are you good at?
What are you really passionate about? 

Do they intersect?

The world wants us to “settle” after college.
Quickly find a job and settle.
Quickly choose a profession and settle.
Quickly start earning and settle.

However, how do we know if what we are settling for is worth settling for?

What if, instead of settling, we tried as many different things as possible?
What if we experimented more often, along with taking care of our finances?

What if we sat on as many chairs as possible, instead of continuing to sit on the first chair we sat on?

Our education system doesn’t teach that to us, that is why we have to do that for ourselves. 

How would you ever know what you want to do, if you never showed yourself what all you could do?

It’s human nature to be inclined towards people who are like us.

They make us feel comfortable, validate our ideas, and even protect our opinions.

However, they don’t help us grow.
We just become a bigger version of ourselves, not a better version.

What if we spent time with people whose worldview was exactly opposite to ours?

How would our life be different if we were to, as a discipline, spend time with people who have a different worldview from ours. 

The goal is not to become like them.
The goal is to explore different perspectives, while evolving as who you are.

The people that we do not want to spend time with are the people who know something we don’t.

Most of us won’t laugh at the same joke again.

Then how is it that we get upset with the same situation again?
How is it that the same past makes us feel hurt again?
How is it that a painful event keeps us unhappy for years after that?

We react to the stories we tell ourselves.
Long after the story is actually over. 

We are constantly fighting for something.
With someone.

Fighting with our parents, our siblings, our boss.
Trying to convince them that we are right.

And that they are wrong.

Defeating them, however, is easy.
Winning over them is easy.

What isn’t easy, though, is to win them. 

Real victory is not in winning over people.
It is winning people over! 

“I want to move on.
Want to forgive them.
However, I don’t want them back in my life.
Is that possible?”

After career advice, this is the most frequently asked question I get.

Most people believe if they forgive someone, it is also permission for them to come back in their lives. 

The two needn’t happen together. It is your choice.

You can forgive someone and still not give them access to your life. 

Forgiving and moving on is important.
So are your boundaries. 

And you can have both.

If we truly love someone, we would never call them a failure.
No matter how they had tanked at something they were enthusiastic about.

We would rather appreciate them for the relentless effort they made, how they overcame their fears, and the fact that they shipped instead of waiting for perfection.

Then how is it that we do not love ourselves enough to have a similar conversation, when we fail?

How would that change things? 

Failure is something we cannot control.
The conversation we have after that with ourselves, is a choice. 

There is a way to avoid failures and rejections altogether.
By not trying in the first place.

The result: no failure, no rejection.
And lifelong regret.

Failure is an answer.
Rejection is an answer. 

Regret is a lifelong question you will never have an answer to.

How do we truly know what it is that we value?

The thing that is most important to us.

Whether in our relationships.
Whether in our work.
Whether at our company.

It is the thing we measure frantically.

If we measure sales, as against customer success, then that is what we value.
If we measure bank balance as against time spent with family, then that is what we value..

Anything that we measure the most, is what we value the most.

When do we feel bad?
Almost always because of an external trigger – circumstances or people.

When do we feel good?
Almost always an internal trigger – something we have done or felt. 

If both statements hold true, how is it that we feel bad more often than we feel good? 

If feeling good is within our control, why do we allow an external stimulus to make us feel bad? 

If we do not want anyone or anything to make us feel bad, especially when we don’t want to, we have to allow ourselves to be happy whenever we want to.