Quitting to Win (Blog)

[Steve Pavlina]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Quitting to Win

[carenkh]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

It was pure colloidal silver.

Had to stop reading because I'm laughing so hard at this line.

OK - back to the article!

[smartile]

I like it.

Try something until you find what you love.

That's a recipe for success.

I've had my own share of careers in the past 10 years:
Wendy's Grill Boy > Grocery Clerk > Bi-Way Clerk > The Beer Store > Contractor > Student > Design Engineer > Project Engineer.

Now I'm writing and getting my work published. I'm getting into music as well.

Maybe I'll take up playing the guitar or write some music this year. That would be fun and I could set it up to pay the bills too!

Who would of thunk, an engineer writing? That's the best part of the journey: we all get to reinvent ourselves so that we can be, do and have whatever we want. Follow your hearts desires, enjoy the journey and maybe you'll discover a career in there too

Make it an amazing 2008!

Stephen Martile — Personal Development Made Simple

[multiplexguru]

It is not just with HR though, supervisors and managers also seem to just want someone bright enough to do the job and that's it. I consider myself a bit above average. I notice a lot of dumb things happen at work, but I have learned to keep my mouth shut about things. I don't know if it is my intelligence or if I am rebellious in nature, but I get bored with work quickly and I start trying to make it more fun by improving and improving and in the process noticing everything that is wrong. Ofcourse then the general public is quick to just label me as a pessimist.

Perhaps I am onto something here, smart people get bored fast and may also be bothered once they notice all the problems after a few months, resulting in frequently changing jobs.

[MartinS]

Good, short, inspiring article.

My thoughts on this: Most people , if not all, look for some sort of steadiness in their lifes. Expecially in our modern times where religion and family structures don't matter that much anymore. More and more people realize though, that steadiness in life is pretty much an illusion. Career planning is difficult in our highly differentiated and globalized world.

I think one can distinguish at least three groups of people that have "crooked" CV's:

1. People who are forced to work something else by external factors such as being fired or because there are simply not enough vacancies in their profession.

2. People who are forced to work something else than originally intended because an "internal dissonance" and the strong desire to resolve this grew in their minds at some point in their life. I see many of such people are reading Blogs like Steve's and Self-Help/Personal Development books. I consider myself as belonging to this group.

3. People who have no fear to live without steadiness or rather who look like people without a steady life. My personal opinion is that these people have their "fixed point" inside and don't seek that in life circumstances. People like DaVinci belong to this group. Members of group 2. are trying to become like this through the way of Personal Development.

These are my thoughts to this article.

Martin

[impaul99]

Steve, you forgot some. He was also a magician, waiter, karate teacher, gas station manager and a u-haul dealer. In fact, he claims to have had 35 professions before age 35.

He's obviously a Scanner, like myself, and you. However, from my research on scanners (Rennaisance Men), only a small percentage of the population is wired like us. Ultimately, most of us end up in a counseling, consulting, advising, coaching, personal development field of some sort because we can very easily adapt and learn new things compared to many others. We have the ability to walk into an organization and absorb 80% of how things works in a few days, and then offer advice on how to become more productive. However, I know that not a lot of people are wired this way.

I know of people who's dream in life is to do one thing, and on thing only, never changing anything, just doing that one single thing and just getting better at it every day. I have employees that I've offered advancement opportunities to, but they have absolutely no desire to learn anything to, just want to keep doing the single thing that they already do and if I change any aspect of their job they get really uncomfortable and even pissed off.

I also know a magician who is brilliant at his art of close-up magic, but he is absolutely not interested in learning any part of the business side of things or anything else. His dream in life would be if he was part of a team of some sort where everyone else did all the other parts of a business and he just did the one thing he's good at for the rest of his life.

It's kind of like the polar opposite of a scanner, namely a total specialist. Most people fit in somewhere in between I think.

One thing I do totally agree with. I would never NOT pursue a new career I'm excited about because it might look bad on my resume. That's a total non-issue for me, and I agree that it shouldn't be part of the decision making process for anyone. I've hired many people who have had eclectic backgrounds and careers. Maybe it's because I'm a scanner though, so I understand what they are doing.

[Sindre]

I LOVED this post! It fills me with a good, warm feeling to see someone as intelligent as Steve write like this. I've had these exact same thoughts for many years, but I thought it was just me, and that I was not "normal". Back then, I couldn't see other possibilities than having a job anyway. I didn't know better.

Now I know, and Steve's the reason. I spent 3-4 months just reading his old posts before joining this forum

I'm glad I joined, as I've also discovered more good personal development websites now!

Perhaps the truth is that you can switch careers as much as you’d like — and that those who’d judge you harshly for it are probably just pissed that you’re reminding them of how stuck they are. Do they really have your best interest at heart… or are they trying to enlist your support in assuaging their own self-doubt and insecurity?

Mmmmhm!

[billybrads]

quitting has been easy for me. I have done it my whole life. I have never wanted to be chained to anything. I have never wanted to get too involved with something that it stunted by growth. The problem has been with so much quitting I've stunted my growth anyways. With each year I seem to get more confused and less clarity about what I want. I have done a ton of different things for small amounts of time, but I feel I have missed out on something else. I just don't know how to move forward at this point, because I don't really even know what that means for me.

[Love]

Originally Posted by multiplexguru

I notice a lot of dumb things happen at work, but I have learned to keep my mouth shut about things.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. I was just telling someone how it was that I learned not to say too much.

I don't know if it is my intelligence or if I am rebellious in nature, but I get bored with work quickly and I start trying to make it more fun by improving and improving and in the process noticing everything that is wrong. Of course then the general public is quick to just label me as a pessimist.

Ditto! I just got reprimanded for being too critical a little while ago.

Perhaps I am onto something here, smart people get bored fast and may also be bothered once they notice all the problems after a few months, resulting in frequently changing jobs.

My, god yes.

I am young and still changing careers and have been discouraged against quitting or changing again because of the need to get credentials and someone to back me to be able to do what I want to do. It's interesting to hear Steve offer a different perspective.

[tekomino]

@multiplexguru and @love

Criticizing is easy. If people tell you that you are criticizing or being negative you probably are. I've been there, done that, there is nothing to gain from it. It is negative state of mind.

Instead of criticizing or being negative try doing. Set out to change things by doing not talking about it. Don't go to you manager with the problem or critique, go with the solution to the problem.

Problems nobody likes, solutions to the problems, on the other hand, people generally love.

[davestarr]

An interesting example that proves Steve's point id the #3 at Google, Eric Schmidt, hired by Sergey and Larry (a quote) to 'provide some adult supervsion" for the company.

Eric has been a high-level executive for at least half a dozen "brand name" companies ... most of whom have folded up. I personally wouldn't have hired Eric to mow my lawn, based on his resume' ... he seems to have the "reverse Midas touch" ... everything he touches turns to poo ... but then it wasn't up to me.

[Anuradha]

I had moved from Resume to Career_transition_Graph a couple of years back. Now that I have bumped into you Steve, I'll probably need to move to a Career_transition_Graph_Precis very soon!

[Love]

What does a career transition graph look like?

[Blue Wolf]

[quote=impaul99;140046]
He's obviously a Scanner, like myself, and you. However, from my research on scanners (Rennaisance Men), only a small percentage of the population is wired like us. Ultimately, most of us end up in a counseling, consulting, advising, coaching, personal development field of some sort because we can very easily adapt and learn new things compared to many others. We have the ability to walk into an organization and absorb 80% of how things works in a few days, and then offer advice on how to become more productive. However, I know that not a lot of people are wired this way.

I know of people who's dream in life is to do one thing, and on thing only, never changing anything, just doing that one single thing and just getting better at it every day. I have employees that I've offered advancement opportunities to, but they have absolutely no desire to learn anything to, just want to keep doing the single thing that they already do and if I change any aspect of their job they get really uncomfortable and even pissed off.

It's kind of like the polar opposite of a scanner, namely a total specialist. Most people fit in somewhere in between I think.
/[quote]
[
@Impaul99,

I find this addition to the discussion really interesting.

I just now tried to google scanner, but since you threw the topic out there I thought perhaps you may have more insight since you obviously picked up this term from somewhere. I did find a few quotes from pop psych books in the google links, but I didn't go through the all the links.

How did the concept of a scanner vs specialist (as a personality type? Wiriing?) start? Does a scanner imply personality type; actual mastery of several subjects; other criteria? Is there validation in other areas? (I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but the academic literature? Peer reviewed science, psychology, etc.).

If holding many jobs is the criteria, how would one make a discrepancy between personality disorder (can't get along with others; come to work on time) vs. actual mastery of different subjects?

How would the whole idea of career differ between these two types of people? (working for oneself, ultimately).

Is there any relationship between a scanner and high novelty seekers?

Thanks for any insight, and thanks for adding an interesting topic to this thread.

[impaul99]

[quote=Blue Wolf;140433][quote=impaul99;140046]
He's obviously a Scanner, like myself, and you. However, from my research on scanners (Rennaisance Men), only a small percentage of the population is wired like us. Ultimately, most of us end up in a counseling, consulting, advising, coaching, personal development field of some sort because we can very easily adapt and learn new things compared to many others. We have the ability to walk into an organization and absorb 80% of how things works in a few days, and then offer advice on how to become more productive. However, I know that not a lot of people are wired this way.

I know of people who's dream in life is to do one thing, and on thing only, never changing anything, just doing that one single thing and just getting better at it every day. I have employees that I've offered advancement opportunities to, but they have absolutely no desire to learn anything to, just want to keep doing the single thing that they already do and if I change any aspect of their job they get really uncomfortable and even pissed off.

It's kind of like the polar opposite of a scanner, namely a total specialist. Most people fit in somewhere in between I think.
/

[
@Impaul99,

I find this addition to the discussion really interesting.

I just now tried to google scanner, but since you threw the topic out there I thought perhaps you may have more insight since you obviously picked up this term from somewhere. I did find a few quotes from pop psych books in the google links, but I didn't go through the all the links.

How did the concept of a scanner vs specialist (as a personality type? Wiriing?) start? Does a scanner imply personality type; actual mastery of several subjects; other criteria? Is there validation in other areas? (I don't mean this in a disrespectful way, but the academic literature? Peer reviewed science, psychology, etc.).

If holding many jobs is the criteria, how would one make a discrepancy between personality disorder (can't get along with others; come to work on time) vs. actual mastery of different subjects?

How would the whole idea of career differ between these two types of people? (working for oneself, ultimately).

Is there any relationship between a scanner and high novelty seekers?

Thanks for any insight, and thanks for adding an interesting topic to this thread.

Look up the book "Refuse to Choose" by Barbara Sher. Also you can check out this article from my old blog: Leonardo Da Vinci was a Scanner and an Amateur, Are You? | Self Help Wisdom . com

Barbara's books were the first to introduce me to the "scanner" mentality and make me feel "normal" for being a scanner, instead of looking at it as a bad thing, such as most modern society believes. She describes how specialization came to be and why our current society values it so much, and how things are changing.

[mattmcc]

Great article. I have given my notice to quit my first full-time job after university. I had only been working there for 7 months. I like to be interested in a lot of things and wonder if I will make it for even a year at my new job.

Unfortunately I could see a lot of envy in people when they found out I was leaving. I think a lot of people working there would like to do the same but they don't have the willingness to embrace change.

It's a funny experience for me - this world of work. I was in a union environment where seniority is very important. I came to realize that years of experience does not equal real life experience. Most people have six months of learning something new and then 10 years of doing the same thing over and over again.

[Kylark]

Reminds me of my career trajectory. Here's a sampling of jobs I've had since college:

Secretary
Delivery Van Driver
Flight Attendant
Translator
Secretary (again!)
Customer Service Representative
Cab Driver (for real! I did this for a month to see what it would be like)
Proofreader
Tech Support
Occasional gigs as a violist
???

Out of all these jobs, my favorites have been working as a flight attendant and working my current job, which is tech support. I'm hoping to move into working for myself at some point.

[sixstringer311]

Yeah but, what happens when you have real life obligations and people like your real life wife don't understand. I've actually had 2 different jobs in one day. I think it's just because I'm sick of doing what I do, which is a construction carpenter. At one point I had a passion for it, 15 years ago. Now my body is not able to do it as it once was, and it makes me sick to work for people without near the intelligence that I have, down me like I'm worthless (too slow). I'd like to teach guitar (I think), but that's a dream. It's not something that can happen overnight to bring in a reasonable income or any at all at first. That is a must, a reasonable income. That's why time and time again, you see me walking up on a construction site talking to some idiot. "Ya'll needin' any carpenters out here?" The money. Hey folks I'm just a hurting soul and need some real wisdom and guidance on this issue, cause it's reached "crisis" point in my life. By the way I do have the knowledge and skill on the guitar to teach. But alas the rent is due. LOL, don't want to fall to far into the pity pot. Seriously, I know this isn't my post but anybody got any answers?

[Erin Pavlina]

Read my blog entry on The Path to Purpose and you'll see that you've got to find a career that earns the income you want, that you are passionate about, that fulfills you, and that you are good at. Do the exercise in the article and see what you come up with.

[Akashic_Librarian]

Bravissimo Steve, a wonderful post.

In the words of Richard Rahl: "Its your life; Rise up and live it"

[Jason S]

I had some trouble with this post... not with the concept, but with the fact that it presupposes that the readers' internal feedback mechanisms are superior to those of the people giving the feedback. I'll agree that there are plenty of people in corporate America who would hold you under their thumbs if you let them... just like there are people in our families and circles of friends who would do the same.

The key is not to dismiss *all* feedback simply because a few critics are mean-spirited or politically motivated, or to leave a job the moment something "bad" happens; it's to recognize how to separate good feedback from bad, to internalize it, and to make a conscious decision: is it *me* or is it *the job*. Human beings are notoriously bad at this; people are hard-wired to blame outside forces for our own shortcomings. In survey after survey where people have to compare themselves to others, the vast majority of respondents rate themselves as "above average." (It's mathematically impossible!) 35 careers in 35 years? Not quite. More like 35 jobs... and let's be careful about extrapolating from one example to the entire population of working adults!

Yes, perhaps if you run from job to job, it is because you are wired to do so, and that you're definition of success will look "unconventional." But more likely, it is because you are trying to run away from something... something that follows you from place to place because it's part of you, as opposed to being part of the various jobs you move through. In this case, you do yourself a disservice by moving so quickly... It's like shopping for a high end sports car without ever having learned how to shift out of first gear. You can test drive the cars all day long and you'll never learn a thing, about yourself or the car: until you learn how to open up that throttle, you'll just be wasting your time... and you'll blame the cars for not lighting your passions when the problem is that you're terrified of pressing the clutch.

So, while the advice is probably sound for a percentage of the population, each of us should think long and hard about whether or not we fall into that population, or whether maybe the feedback we're getting from the outside world--the feedback that sounds like, "You're not putting your all into this," "I think you should stay with this for a bit longer before that promotion," etc., is actually more insightful than the advice we give ourselves. Maybe the issue isn't with the job, but with our ability to commit to something on our own volition, or to accept feedback that we don't like.

[Bonkers]

Its funny that relationships are very similar to this. I Find in myself that when I get into the *marriage routine* with a girl I get bored and move on. Of course there are girls that continue to challenge me and help me grow (including my amazing girlfriend ATM), however on the whole I don't like to be with someone just to be with her, I'd much rather be single and seeking someone who I can grow as a person with.

Does anyone else feel the same way, or is this just me?

[tekomino]