The Trap of Slow and Steady

Three years ago, my life changed in a spooky way. 👻 (Sorry for the pun, it’s October 31st)

A part-time client/job that I had worked with since high school got acquired. Unfortunately, that meant contractors got axed. This felt like very bad news at the time. Sure, there were other clients, but I had worked with this company since I was in high school, and it was my longest-running client at the time. I really believed in the product and industry and hoped to turn that into a full-time job post-college, either at that company or another in the industry. But with a short Facebook message, that all changed.

Instead, that event forced me out from under complacency into what was next for my life, and (surprise) the past three years have been marked by reaching many of the milestones that would have been impossible before.

This is less of a tech post and more of a career-motivation post, and probably somewhat of a letter to myself and anyone else who often finds themselves with a complacency bias. If you’re not interested, I promise there will be more tech-focused posts in the future.

As humans, we often try to put ourselves in situations where there’s a clear map, a ten-step process, or clear progression steps. I learned the motto “Be Prepared” as a kid in scouts. If you bring the right equipment, have the right training, and know the right people, it is much easier to adapt to life’s chaos. Overall, at least on paper, that is a good strategy. But more often, what we need isn’t a map, but a compass. I’m just 23, but looking back over my life, everything that I wish I would have/could have done differently was because I went with the safe option, the option that matched expectations, and the choice that had the most dependable outcome.

Don’t get me wrong. Making plans is a good idea, and you need some level of security to avoid going insane, but if you let your desire for safety hold you back from reaching your potential, you’ll never reach the level you’re meant for.

Safe bets get safe rewards.

You didn’t stay up late studying, go the extra mile, and spend countless hours working towards mediocrity. Sometimes the problem is that we’re following a map that we created with the goal of dependability and stability, when we need to be following a compass to lead us to the bigger opportunity around the corner.

The past few years haven’t been perfect, far from it, and there are many things I wish I had done differently or been more aggressive about. Society tends to think of people who make radical changes in their lives as crazy or misguided, and when radical change comes from something outside of someone’s control, we often pity those people, but maybe that change is what will open the door for what’s next. Radical change rarely feels comfortable, but it often reveals the version of yourself you didn’t know existed.

If you spend your whole life waiting for a plan or expecting someone else to map out your life for you, the only thing you’ll end up with is experience when you need to follow a direction.

As I reflect today, I want to challenge myself and you, if you’ve continued to read this far, to seek out radical opportunities and aim for something greater. Slow and steady may win the race, but only if you’re sure you’re in the right race. Sometimes you need to put down the map and trust the compass.

This week, take one step that feels slightly uncomfortable. Maybe a conversation, an application, a risk. You might be surprised where it leads.