One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don't choose your passions; your passions choose you.
Jeff Bezos.
The executive and the entrepreneur: the movie
What do you identify with more: a creator or an executor?
What do you enjoy more: creating something new or executing and taking a project forward?
It is important that you understand what kind of underlying professional profile you have: creator or executor.
No one is 100% one or the other (except in extreme cases, I guess). We are all somewhere in a Gaussian bell where one extreme is the pure creator and at the opposite end a pure executor.
For the pure creator his only interest is to invent a project and set it in motion, to find a problem and look for a solution through something new, to create.
For the pure executor his only interest is to develop a project that already has at least the main lines marked, manage it and make it move forward.
The normal thing is not that you are chemically pure, but that you are more one thing than the other.
Sometimes much more one thing than the other. Much more of a creator than an executor or the other way around.
First act: let's meet our protagonists
But first: why is this important?
Because you may find yourself pursuing a career (or already immersed in one) that doesn't fit you, not even with hammer blows.
And you don't know why.
- I studied graphic engineering at Perrymore College and joined Walsmart. I manage projects. They are complex and I work hard.
I am bitter...
Why, if you have a job that would be the dream of many?
Maybe because it turns out that for you managing and executing projects, seeing a Gantt chart, resources, lead times, task dependencies and follow-up meetings is the most clear and vivid representation of living death.
But you studied graphic engineering (or anything else) and that's supposed to be a good job for your background.
And it is.
But it's not good for you.
And it's not because you are a creator.
If you tune it so that you have zero chance of failure, you usually also have zero chance of success. Reid Hoffman.
What you like is to imagine how to solve a new problem, start a new project, business, solution, express your creativity to make the design of that creation, make it be born and take its first steps.
But that's as far as it goes. When it walks alone, you get bored. Let someone else take it.
You have a match of training - work, but not of professional personality - work.
- I'm a graphic engineering major at Perrymore College and I'm one of the first members of a super cool startup. We're doing super innovative things. We're going to change the world.
I'm bitter...
How can that be, with how trendy the world of entrepreneurship and startups is, with how cool your startup is?
Maybe because the stress generated by the uncertainty that everything is not clear at work is extremely high.
I don't say clear, but the level of uncertainty is practically not knowing anything.
Or because every week 25 unexpected events appear (that were not expected) and are solved in the heat of the moment with what there is (which is not what is necessary to solve them).
Or maybe because that unsolvable answer of how to plan the next month of something that changes every week (and every day) makes you turn over at night in bed like a washing machine trying to control the uncontrollable.
But you studied graphic engineering (or whatever) and these startups are looking for profiles like yours because they're perfect for the job.
And they are.
But the position is not perfect for you.
And it's not because you're an executor.
Ideas don’t make you rich. The correct execution of ideas does. Felix Dennis.
What you like is to wake up in the morning with a calendar, an agenda, some tangible element of certainty and control that represents planning. From there, start the day with enthusiasm to push the project forward.
Working hard, it doesn't scare you. The only thing you need to know is what rock to crush, where it is and when to do it.
You have a training-job match, but not a professional personality-job match.
Second act: and what is better?
The other day you saw some managers, some executives (to execute) in an interview and they looked very good. Suits that looked more expensive than they really are, correct hairstyles (some old, some to look younger), everything in order.
You should want that, right?
They say being a manager and having a card / LinkedIn that impresses is cool.
Then you read an interview with a guy from a startup who was in Egyptian plague green jeans, white sneakers, unshaven and uncombed (that couldn't be a voluntarily chosen hairstyle). Very cool.
They say entrepreneurship is the new coolest thing.
If you are Founder, Cofounder, Chief Perryness of Engagement in a startup, it's cool.
Maybe you haven't even thought about it, but: what a dilemma, isn't it?
I'll let you know a secret:
Nothing is better.
What's clearly worse is that you're where you shouldn't be, and you're bitter about it.
The best thing is that you are devoting your time and professional energy to what you like and best fits your profile.
There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way. Christopher Morley.
If it is to be more on the creation side: entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship in a consolidated company, being involved in projects where your creativity is valued or in an NGO that needs to create new solutions to problems.
If it is being more on the executor side: having a playing field with more marked lines, maybe there is adventure, but not directly risk of life, being involved in projects with rules, planning and acceptable certainties to be able to push it forward knowing that you are following a path that exists.
Third act: You have convinced me. And now: how do I know what I am?
As always in La Forja: if you don't have it clear in a self-intuitive way (some people have it very clear since school) you know how to solve this.
With your overalls on.
The sooner, the better, the lower the opportunity cost.
You don't want to find this out after 10 years of working. Better to find out sooner rather than later.
And if you figure it out at 10 years better now than after 20 years, realign yourself with what fits better with who you are. Better that than to be out of alignment for another 10 years.
I know people who are unhappy in their job and look for reasons where there are none because what happens is that they are not aligned with what their job expects of them. And they want the job to give them something it's not going to give them.
It's nobody's fault. It's the fault of putting on a size 42 shoe when you're a 46. It's never going to fit.
Spend some time, reflection and work to understand what your bias is, the one of the creator or the one of the executor, or what your mix is and which side you are more inclined to be.
Experiment and draw conclusions. They won't be hard for you to draw, but you have to try different situations, otherwise you won't get the information you need.
Once you know what your creator-executor mix is: find a niche in something that fits what you like to do best.
Play to your own advantage, not against it.
José Fortes - La Forja
josefortes@substack.com
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