How Do I Become the Tortoise?

Good things take time.

While wunderkinds like Mark Zuckerberg take control of their companies at an early age, that's the exception rather than the rule. In 2013, the average age for an incoming CEO was 53, while the average age for those on their way out was 63.

So the takeaway here seems simple: think long-term about your career and life goals.

But this doesn't tell us what to do on a day to day to emphasize this. It's simply too easy to go back to regular life and become sucked into the blazing speed that the rest of the world is engulfed in.

Instead, I'll leave you with some action items from leaders who've applied this mindset.

Satya Nadella has, perhaps objectively, done an amazing job at Microsoft since the start of his tenure. Here's what he has to say about career advice:

“Saying, ‘Well, I’m waiting for the next job to do my best work’ is the worst trap,” he contends. “If you say, ‘The current job I have is everything I ever wanted,’ life becomes just so much more straightforward.”

So one thing you can do is appreciate your current role. Sure, you may not be where you want to be just yet. But are you getting paid? Do you have healthcare? Do you get to solve problems with some degree of autonomy? If so, you're already doing better than a surprising amount of the world. And that's good enough.

Let's hear from Jeff Bezos too. He seems to be doing pretty well:

Our first shareholder letter, in 1997, was entitled, 'It's all about the long term.' If everything you do needs to work on a three-year time horizon, then you're competing against a lot of people. But if you're willing to invest on a seven-year time horizon, you're now competing against a fraction of those people, because very few companies are willing to do that. Just by lengthening the time horizon, you can engage in endeavors that you could never otherwise pursue. At Amazon we like things to work in five to seven years. We're willing to plant seeds, let them grow and we're very stubborn. We say we're stubborn on vision and flexible on details.

Here's another method: set longer-term goals. If you can pay your bills and have time for personal activities, do you need a promotion this cycle? What if you got it next cycle or next year? Will your life change that much, or do you just have more disposable income and more responsibilities?

This is not saying don't be ambitious. This is a gentle reminder that ambition takes time and that your life will not dramatically change after you reach your goals. This is something DHH talks about quite a bit in this blog post.

Finally, a quote from Cal Newport, author of Deep Work, the book that got me thinking about this notion:

The happiest, most passionate employees are not those who followed their passion into a position, but instead those who have been around long enough to become good at what they do. On reflection, this makes sense.

Focus not on the next level, but getting good at the current one. Ironically, taking a day by day view of your current job or function is the only way to truly do it. What are things you can do today to be just a little bit better?