What About Building a Great Career Slowly

Let's analyze the word "slow". Merriam Webster's three definitions of "slow" include: 1) mentally dull, 2) lacking in readiness or promptness, and 3) moving without speed.

Notice a pattern? Interestingly, these all carry negative connotations - as though being slow is somehow a bad thing.

What if slow was good? What if, for certain things in life, being the tortoise was not just a nice thought, but necessary?

With regards to career progression, a quick scan of numerous biographies of successful people reveals that an amazing career takes time. Many of the presidential candidates in recent elections are in their 70's-- it often takes that long to build up the confidence, experience, and credibility.

Entrepreneurs and businesses are the same way. The majority strikes it rich later in life-- most entrepreneurs are nearly 40 by the time they launch their first successful venture.

The Dropbox story is a good one. The data storage company, whose cloud service is one of the most used digital products in the world, launched on Hacker News on January 19, 2007. It went public this past year.

For those counting, it's been over ten years. In the world of software and the internet, that's quite a long time. Since then, we've witnessed an economic recovery, a smartphone/app revolution, single-page applications, and the proliferation of AI and machine learning. However, Drew Houston and the Dropbox team have consistently focused on their core mission and product throughout, and they may just be getting started.