Could You Become Too Good to Ignore?

What if "follow your passion" is actually terrible advice? What if there were something that was much, much better? Cal Newport has some surprising insights for building a career you love.

Have you read Cal Newport's book, “So Good they Can't Ignore You”? It is the antithesis of every lifestyle blogger we’ve ever clicked on.

You know the lifestyle bloggers. They are the ones we stalk in our Facebook feed on days when we feel like a hamster in a wheel. The ones that make us imagine we could sell all our possessions and make a living traveling the world as a lifestyle blogger.

While following your passion sounds like great career advice for a church tech, Newport has a different take on it. One that requires a little more focus and a lot more discipline in order to get to the payoff you want. His book encourages three strategies, that defy the admonition to “follow your passion.”

1. Build your career capital through acquiring rare and valuable skills

Newport describes the most desirable careers as being marked by creativity, impact and control (autonomy). But those aren't the markers of all careers. Newport writes, “Basic economic theory tells us that if you want something that's both rare and valuable, you need something rare and valuable to offer in return—this is Supply and Demand 101. It follows that if you want a great job, you need something of great value to offer in return.”

In the quest for building rare and valuable skills, Newport encourages us to adopt a craftsman mindset over a passion mindset. How do you become a craftsman? Well, through the type of practice that stretches your skills. None of us grow in our capacity by just doing what we've always done. All of us, even church techs, have to reach to the places where we are uncomfortable to actually acquire the new skills that make us better. While a guitarist can become good at playing a certain playlist, a world-class guitarist becomes good by going off of the playlist, continually practicing the things that are just out of reach.

Austin Belcak, in his article about how to start a career in a different field without experience, shares a variety of places we can study new skills like reading (free), online courses like Coursera (cheap) and by following the blogs of the industry that interests us. But learning is only the first step, it's the action into the things we are learning that forces us to get better.

2. Turn down a promotion

Newport encourages us not to underestimate the power of control when it comes to achieving a sense of satisfaction in our careers. He highlights that sometimes it makes sense to turn down a promotion in favor of a position that gives us more control over what we do and how we do it.

Dan Pink, in his book Drive: “The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, writes, “Living a satisfying life requires more than simply meeting the demands of those in control. Yet in our offices and our classrooms we have way too much compliance and way too little engagement. The former might get you through the day, but the latter will get you through the night.” Pink, like Newport, cites that autonomy is an important ingredient in being happy in our careers.

3. Think small, but act big. Mission matters.

“To have a mission,” Newport writes, “is to have a unifying focus for your career. It's more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. It provides an answer to the question ‘What should I do with my life?' Missions are powerful because they focus your energy toward a useful goal and this in turn maximizes your impact on your world—a crucial factor in loving what you do. People who feel like their careers truly matter are more satisfied with their working lives, and they're also more resistant to the strain of hard work.” Newport goes on to say, “Plenty of people are good at what they do, but haven't reoriented their career in a compelling direction.”

The thing about mission is that it isn't an elusive thing. There are specific steps you can take, but it requires career capital, a willingness to experiment and the ability to find work around an idea that inspires people enough to remark about it—something Newport details in his book.

If you feel stuck in your career, you might think that you have to wait for the next opportunity to come to you. But what if you were able to take action to unstick yourself? What would happen to your career if you became so good they can't ignore you?

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