First Manager Job

Your First Management Job

So you’ve gotten yourself into your first job as a manager. That’s great! What you learn can set you on a life changing path toward personal fulfillment and financial independence. But just like it’s easy to work at a gym and never touch a weight, its easy to work as a manager and not learn enough to be around for long, or to achieve the upward mobility you were hoping for.

But if you do make the effort, the payoff can be very large because being a good manager puts you on the path to make a large amount of money for doing a small amount of work, and what work you do do will be interesting or maybe even prestigious, and best of all, its work you choose yourself. Because as a manager, you likely aren’t being told what to do, you’re told what results to achieve, with you deciding how best to go about it.

This fundamental distinction between being assigned work and being assigned goals in a lot of ways forms the line between fun and work, and the line between jobs people never get tired of, and those they drag themselves into everyday counting the days until vacations and retirement.

Why should I want to be a manager if it requires extra effort.

Lets start out with an example. If you’ve played much golf, you know it takes forever compared to about any other type of sport or game. When I was in college we played a lot of golf because we had a lot of time on our hands. But other than us it was mostly business managers out there during the middle of the day, and we marveled about how these guys could be running businesses and departments but still spend all day playing golf. What I know now is that it makes perfect sense, because as a manager your job is not to do anything. Your job is to get other people to do things. And the beauty of that is that if you can get and keep your people trained and motivated, there may be little else for you to actually do. And once you enter the next layer of management, where you are the manager of managers, there is literally nothing for you to do, IF (and this is a big if) you can keep the mangers under you skilled and motivated, and informing you completely and accurately what’s going on so you can decide what needs to be done to fix problems before they turn into disasters that could endanger the organization and/or get you fired.

Just imagine a job like that, you’re getting paid top tier, and your day looks like this. You plunk yourself down on at your desk, pull up a few spreadsheets to see what the numbers look like for whatever it is your people are doing, you read a few emails, check your favorite news websites, see if there’s anything new on substack or X, then maybe you chat with a couple of your managers. Then its time for lunch, you go out with a manager from another organization that you know and you both have a great free lunch on the company telling business stories back and forth about all the silly dumb things that supposedly smart experts do, and you both complain how you can never find any decent managers to work under you. IF you become good at management, this is more or less what your typical day looks like, and you’re getting paid a lot of money to do it.

My personal claim to fame so to speak, and what gives me freedom to do whatever I want (which is what you see here), is I helped a client start an insurance business on the side that outgrew the original business x 10 and was bought by a much larger company. I ended up on a three person executive committee that made all the major decisions, and what has gotten me so interested in management was finding out firsthand how great of a deal it is to be in management, but also how difficult it is to find people who can do it. As an example of how great of a deal it can be, in the buyout referenced above, managers in their 40s were cashing in million dollar stock option grants, but there was still a revolving door trying to find people who could do even a passable job at it without getting themselves fired or demoted.

Why is it so darn hard to be a manager?

Is it because there’s something innate that you just have to be born with? People think that, but no, and not only is it not something you’re born with, if you are what people think of as a “natural leader”, this actually creates obstacles for you that you will need to overcome and which account for why you see such a small percentage of “natural leader” types as managers.

So if it’s not something you’re born with, why is it so hard, why can’t everyone do it? The answer is that you can learn it, but it takes time to learn, and most new managers don’t last long enough in their new role to get it figured out. The reason for this is fundamental human nature, and more specifically, the aspect of human nature that causes people encountering new situations to draw on past experiences that feel the same. But when it comes to management, there’s a problem with this approach that can bring a quick end to a new management career.

3 Different Jobs

To be a manager, you have 3 completely distinct and separate management jobs.

You manage down which is managing your own workers who you are in charge of. This is what most people think of when then they think of management.
You manage across, which is dealing with other managers at your same level in different departments or work groups who do not work for you and you don’t work for them.
You manage up, which is dealing with your own boss, who since you are a manager makes them a manager of managers.

If you want to be around long enough to learn the ropes in your new management job, which of these 3 jobs is going to be the most important starting out?

Most new managers assume it’s #1 (managing the workers you are in charge of). But they are wrong, and this mistake in priorities is the number 1 reason why first time managers frequently have short careers in management.

The real answer is #3 (dealing you’re your own boss), for the very simple reason that your boss can fire or demote you in an instant if they want to. And it’s likely to be even worse than that because they likely won’t even tell you about it right away after they make the decision to demote or fire you, and instead just start looking for your replacement and moving your responsibilities to others hoping you get the message to quit. This type of “quite firing” can cruelly waste a year or more of your life before it finally plays out with your leaving the company or department.

So never forget this point. When you are a new manager, your most important management priority starting out is upwards, to your own boss. They are the power source that will determine the trajectory of your career in management, at least for a while.

With the importance of “managing up” now being on top of your mind, we next need to talk about “managing down” because it will make understanding your "managing up" responsibilities a lot more obvious.

Managing Down

Managing down is what most people think of when they think of a management job. You have a department or work group, and you are the manager, and the people in your group work for you. You are their boss. You are responsible for training them, setting goals for them, making sure they do their assigned work, making sure they are following the rules, and you determine (or have great influence in deciding) what they get back in terms of money, time off, and discipline. You will spend a lot of time together and will bond with them on a personal level.

So what does this relationship with your workers remind you of? Parent-Child right? Or maybe Big brother/sister – Little brother/sister. And this is in fact how most new managers look at it. They can’t help seeing it this way because the situation feels so familiar in those terms. But there are big problems with falling into that relationship mindset with your employees.

Protecting “your children”

If you let yourself fall into the “department is a family” mindset, then your workers are like your children or younger siblings, and with every fiber in your being, you will feel it’s your job to protect them above all else.

Problem is, there is no organization on earth, where it is in a manager’s job description to “protect” their workers (other than in the physical or hostile work environment sense). As a manager, you do have a duty to protect, but this duty is not to your workers, the duty to protect runs upward to protect the organization and/or to your own boss, not the other way around. And because your actual duty runs upward, it makes the mindset of you protecting your workers from consequences feel like a betrayal by you against the organization and against your own boss who for the time being has power over your career.

So that’s a problem, and an eventual career ending one at that. But there’s an even more immediate problem. Protecting your workers from consequences of their actions, e.g. covering up for them in some way, hands that worker blackmail material against you as their new manager, power they can use in the future, anytime they want - to get you fired.

Let’s use an example. You’re a camp counselor and your CIT sneaks out, is up all night drinking and smoking pot, and you find out about it next morning. You and they both know this is breach of a cardinal rule and would get the CIT sent home. But you really like this CIT, and you blame yourself for not keeping a closer eye on them, so instead of reporting them to the head counselor, you have a talk with them and get them to promise not to do it again. All good? Right? Not quite. Because they now know that you have broken a cardinal rule yourself by not reporting it, and that you could likely be fired if this were to come to light. So then what happens next? CIT and everyone they tell now knows they can get you in big trouble anytime they want. How much authority do think you have over them after that? Answer is near zero. They now have authority over you.

This is what is in store for new managers who let themselves fall into the natural trap that human nature lays for them by making your department and your workers feel like family, when they are not.

Holding people accountable

On this topic its good to think for a moment about the whole concept of holding and not holding people accountable for their actions. What if this wayward CIT (and everyone they have told about it) now knowing they can get away with anything, sneak out again, and somebody gets killed or injured in a drunken accident, and then it comes to light, which it definitely will, that they had done this before and were allowed to get away with it.

In a rules based environment, letting someone escape the consequences of breaking the rules hurts not helps their development in the long run. I personally have a lot of guilt over this dynamic where I have let people get away with things, and then sure enough, they get some great new job or promotion and get fired right away for things that I should have socialized them out of long ago ny enforcing the rules.

Learning to manage down

There is a lifetime’s worth of knowledge, and systems, and tips, and tricks, and techniques, and seminars, aimed at improving people’s skills managing down with their own employees. But in order to be around long enough to attend these seminars and learn these skills, you will need to embrace a fundamental tenant. That your duty to protect, runs up not down. And that if you violate it: A. You are not doing your worker a favor, and might actually be causing them great harm, and B. You will eventually be outed by that same worker you were trying to protect, or by someone else they have told, which no doubt they will. The resulting consequences for you, that your organization will view your coverup as a betrayal, is likely to be unforgiving.

Managing Across

The next level of management, Managing Across, is dealing with other managers at your same level in different departments or work groups who do not work for you and you don’t work for them.

You and your group of fellow managers will likely spend a lot of time together. You’ll be in meetings probably every day, and since you have similar jobs, you will have similar work interests and points of view. You will go on manager retreats where you party together and go kayaking or whitewater rafting or escape games. You’ll meet up after work for drinks.

So what does this situation or relationship remind you of? Friendship - right? Your fellow managers who you have so much in common with, and spend so much time with, seem just like your good friends from college or high school. And as a new manager, you cannot help this very familiar feeling. And you also cannot help your natural reaction which is to want to bond more closely with them, on a personal level, which is good. However, there are two main ways that young people are used to bonding with friends in high school and college, but which are poison to their new management career if they do it the same way in a work environment.

Confiding with “friends”

One main if not universal way people bond with personal friends is through disclosing secrets, and commiserating about intimate personal situations and past actions they feel bad or embarrassed about.

Problem is, with fellow managers or others at your same level, you in a very real sense, are in competition with them for the next level of promotion to being a manager of managers, which is where the real money and freedom and fun begins for your career. But even when a coworker is promoted before you, or gets hired away by a bigger better organization, that’s not a bad thing if you have a clean relationship with them. They can bring you along to the new great company, or push with higherups for opportunities or promotions for you in the current organization. But they are only going to do that if they are confident that nothing you’ve done or will do could get them in trouble and jeopardize their standing in their new dream.

And this is where your prior intimate disclosures with your co-worker/co-manager “friend” comes back to haunt you. Probably no one would ever be promoted anywhere if the person doing the promoting knew every bad thing about them, or maybe even a fraction of it. That’s reality. We have all made bad decisions and done tons of things we’re not particularly proud of. So when it comes to managing across. Dealing with other managers and co-workers on your same level. Your number one job is to impress them with how you handle your job, how pleasant and helpful you are to deal with and to just have around, and not to give them information which can give them doubts about you, or be used against you in the future. Your fellow manager “work friends” can love you dearly as a person, but still know too much about you for them to risk their own good standing by getting you a promotion, or a job with their new company. And they can also love you as a person, but still consider you too much of a downer or gossiper or drama queen to want you around in the workplace. This is the reality of “work friends” vs “personal friends”.

If you want to be happy in the world of management, you will need to develop ways of bonding with co-workers that don’t involve salacious details of your personal or party life, or criticizing or complaining or exaggerating about problems in the workplace.

Bashing and Ganging up

The other main way that people bond with personal friends in high school and college is identifying people and things you both dislike and gossiping about them and bringing in others to dislike them too. It can feel fun and powerful to be plotting behind peoples’ backs and getting others into your clique. And no doubt the targets of your efforts will provide new material everyday for your texting gossip sessions, and secret eye rolls.

Problem is, the friends you make and bond with in this way, will never hire you, will never recommend you for a job or promotion, and if they get promoted first, they will likely want to get rid of you fast before you start gossiping about them, because they know first hand what a poisonous effect this type of conduct has in the workplace.

So just like with bonding over personal disclosures, bonding by ganging up or complaining is a career killer at precisely the wrong time; when you are just getting started, and when other young people you start out with will be fanning out over a large area and many different organizations in the future, and who can very much help or very much hurt your prospects for advancement.

Managing Up

Which brings us back to the main event so to speak, managing up, dealing with your own boss, which because of their current position, we know to be the highest immediate priority of your 3 separate roles as a manager.

Your boss will be your mentor and advisor, will likely be older than you by a ways, will be giving you directions, and will be controlling your financial situation. What does this situation feel like. Parent-child of course, which is the natural human nature way of looking at it. Its a situation we have all had vast experience with, and every fiber in your being will be making you feel like this is a familiar situation and you should act accordingly. Except you should not.

As a manager yourself, your boss by definition is a manager of managers. This is a very good job - for them. Its going to pay them a lot, its going to have a lot of freedom, its going to have prestige, and its going to give them authority over others and an opportunity to use a lot of their own creativity in how they organize and accomplish things. They have spent years working their way into this spot of being a manager of mangers and they probably love their job. They don’t want to get fired.

But you, Mr. or Ms. brand new manager can get them fired, if you make a big enough mistake, and you don’t let them know about it in time for them to fix it before it turns into a big disaster for the department or the company as a whole.

So they’re gonna be nervous about the situation in general, and about trusting you their brand new manager in particular. And as a result they will be asking you a lot of questions about everything going on in and around your work group. But there’s a problem with this if you fall into the trap of viewing them as a parent figure.

If you are like 90% of young people when asked a question by a parent, your response is based on 4 main considerations:

What can I say to not get in trouble.
What can I say to not get embarrassed
What can I say to get them to not ask anything more about it.
What can I say to make this interrogation as brief as possible

Unfortunately, none of these instinctive responses have anything to do with the accuracy or completeness of your answer, which is the only thing your boss cares about.

This problem more than anything else is responsible for the constant churn of hiring, promoting, demoting, and firing that you see of new managers in start-up and fast growing organizations. Which is particularly unfortunate because these are the type of organizations where entry level management positions are the most valuable, IF you can hang in there while the company grows.

The remedy is to think of it like this. As a new manager, you are the eyes and ears of your manager-of-mangers boss. They are nervous about it, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Except, one thing, which is to make sure the managers working under them, WHEN ASKED, give totally accurate and complete information.

The fact that most young people find this hard to do creates peril, but also opportunities for young people who are in the know, because they will not have to wait long for new positions to open up as nature takes its course with young managers above them who fall into the boss is parent trap.

One of the great things about working at Beach Camp for the summer, is you get practice managing people in a low stress environment, so you will already have worked through the normal young person angst and nervousness and misplaced parent-child transference that can result in career ending avoidance or confabulation when dealing with your future bosses.

Communication Styles

Now that you know the basic architecture of manager relationships common to almost every organization, let’s talk about some practical advice that can help you operate within these fundamental constraints.

Managing Down Communications

One thing you hear over and over again from people who have worked on any big new product, or improvement, or expansion, or promotion within an organization is something to the effect of “…if I knew how hard it was going to be, I never would have done it…”

Literally, you hear this almost every time. And once you’ve gotten that first promotion to a manager position, it usually means you’ve been through something like this, and you know how hard it is. So does this mean that you as a new manager, who now knows how hard things can, be will share this unhappy news with the people working under you?

Of course not. Your job when managing down, is primarily as a motivator. You are a coach, a personal trainer, an SAT tutor. You’re not their lawyer cya'ing yourself by informing the client of every possible pitfall and risk.

As a young person I climbed most of the major peaks in the North Cascades. The interesting ones, with rock and ice, hanging glaciers, icefalls, etc and new routes when possible that hadn’t been done before. And one thing I’ll never forget, is that I would never have climbed a single one if not for a leader who constantly exaggerated and outright lied to us about how not hard it was going to be. Obviously we soon figured out that everything he said was an exaggeration at the least, but oddly we still wanted to hear that it wasn’t going to be that exposed, or crumbly, or icy, or crevassed, or lacking in handholds, or avalanche prone, etc. We not only found it comforting, but we probably wouldn’t have gone if we didn’t hear it, even after knowing deep down that we couldn’t in reality believe a word of it.

This is the nature of managing down, of being a motivator. The people working for you know that your job is as a motivator, not a lawyer. They want to hear that they can do it, that it might not be easy but its not going to be that hard, even when they might know deep down that it might be.

Managing Up Communications

Communications style when managing up on the other hand, requires a completely different frame of mind. And this difference accounts for why “natural leaders” frequently have a difficult time and short tenure working beneath others within organizations. Natural leaders are particularly vulnerable to being caught up in protection rackets for their employees, and also have the hardest time shifting from the managing down motivation centered communications style, to the accuracy centered style needed for managing up. As a result, natural leaders frequently earn the title of “bullshit artist” by their bosses as the natural leaders are managed out of the company.

So how do natural leaders and everyone else, avoid falling into the “bs artist” trap when managing up, when we spend so much or our time in motivation communications mode managing down with our subordinates?

-Keep your head in the game:

The first thing that managers need to learn in this regard is to just keep your head in the game as to what’s going on in your department so you have already thought through how to accurately explain it when asked. Some people find the process of doing daily notes or summaries helpful, and others just do it in their head, but either way, the best way to be ready to answer boss questions accurately and completely, is to have already thought about it accurately and completely in advance.

-Stop talking and think when necessary:

Another essential part of managing up communications, is being ready to stop talking and think, when necessary, to keep your response accurate. You can say it just like this “…ok let me think for a second, I want to make sure I explain this right…” Then if you still can’t pull it all together on the fly, you need to say “…let me go check my notes and get right back to you, I want to make sure I explain this correctly…”

-Don’t pretend you were there when you weren’t:

One very common and fraught situation for new managers is that sometimes bad things happen in your department that you didn’t see yourself and only hear about second hand. When you report to your boss about the situation, a potentially career ending move on your part would be to tell the story as if you were there and without explaining that you are just passing on a story you were told. If you pass on a story as your own, and the story you relayed without attribution turns out to be wrong (which they usually are), you have committed the cardinal sin of lying to your boss and probably covering up for a subordinate. The proper way to handle these situations is to put it something like: “…I wasn’t there when ______________ happened, all the information we have right now is Stacy’s version of the story she says she heard from Steve, which is as follows…”

-Don’t pretend to know things that you don’t:

As a new manager you will be asked a lot of questions by your boss that you will not know the answer to. This is normal and inevitable because you have not yet learned what kinds of things you boss considers most important for you to know. This period in every new manager’s career can seem excruciating and the temptation to make things up can be overwhelming. But don’t do it! Your new manager break-in period is a one time opportunity for you to build trust and credibility and prove that you can be relied on for providing accurate information and saying you don’t know when you don’t know.

Even if it is something you feel like you should know, you still need to either admit you don’t know and move on, or say you’ll check and report back. If you do make the mistake of letting your mouth get ahead of your brain and say something(s) that are inaccurate or pass on a second hand story as fact, or leave out important parts, circle back as soon as possible to fix it. Fixing a communications error is a good thing not a bad thing. It will further build your credibility and give your boss comfort that you can be trusted, which is by far the most important trait for you to establish at the start of your management career.

Resourcefulness

Now that your head is in the management game, and you know the playing field boundaries that you need to say within, there is another important aspect you’ll want to keep in mind to be assured you’ll be around long enough to learn all the things you need to learn for a successful career managing people. That is “Resourcefulness”.

If you think about it, if there is a management job that needs to be done by a human, it is because there are lots of unexpected things happening that that defy simple checklist type solutions. Otherwise, the job would be done by a checklist, or app, or spreadsheet, or procedure, and/or it would be overseen by a low paid admin of some kind. And with AI, this will be more and more true every day.

To start working on your resourcefulness skills, the main thing if not only thing is embracing the mindset that when something bad or unexpected happens, it is an opportunity to apply your problem solving skills. It is not something to dread, or to use as an opportunity for complaining, resignation, or knee jerk yelling and flailing around pretending to be leader, which are the most common responses by people new to a manager role. But the fact that these unhelpful responses are so common, is good for you because it allows you to stand out as a valuable asset if you embrace problems as an opportunity to apply your problem solving skills.

Problem Solving

We have a whole another talk on Problem Solving, but as a bit of a preview, lets talk for a minute about what problem solving is. And what it is is very simple. Problem solving is thinking through your options. It’s as simple as this: Unexpected problem arises – (1st) List your options – (2nd) Consider pros and cons of each option – (3rd) Pick the least worst option – (4th) Move to next option if previous one didn’t work, rinse and repeat.

If you make approaching problems in this way a habit, you will make yourself valuable if not indispensable in any situation and in any organization you find yourself.

The last thing I want to say about this preview of our problem solving talk is the concept of “Over Thinking”. And just so you know, this is a term that does not exist in the world of management, because it doesn’t exist in reality, at least not in the way high school teachers love to used it.

Overthinking is not “over” thinking, it is “under” thinking because it means not thinking your way through the simple 4 step process laid out above. It the opposite of problem solving where we come up with options, pick the least worst one, and move on. Over thinking is thinking there’s some magical solution out there that will pop into your head if you worry about something enough. That is not “over” thinking, because it is not “thinking” at all. Thinking means logic, and logic means considering your options 1 by 1 and accepting the hard fact that you have to pick one, and that the one you pick is not going to be a magic solution, and that you frequently need to keep trying new things before you find one that works best in practice.

Conclusion

If you have made it to this point by reading and reflecting upon the concepts above, you now know more than 99.9% of people starting out in their first manager job. And if you follow this advice (along with the “First Job” blog before it), you will be virtually guaranteed to be around long enough to develop your management skills and to learn all you need to learn to turn your first management job into a life changing path toward fun, fulfillment and financial independence in the world of work.

Although you will learn these things on your own over time, I would like to leave you with a short list of a few important things I have learned over many years that would have done me a lot of good had I figured them out sooner.

-JT

4 Keys to Keeping Everyone Happy

Every organization has its own policies and procedures developed over many years, and the main measure of success for managers in that organization, is how well they are able to get their workers to accept, embrace, like, & even enjoy these unique policies and procedures. Getting someone to like something, however, is a lot harder than getting someone to do something, and the following tips on interpersonal dynamics between managers and staff can be the key for bridging this gap between doing and liking.

1. Facial Expressions have more impact than new managers recognize. People can’t help it, but regardless of the actual words being said, if they come with an unhappy, angry, or fearful look, the intended meaning will be lost to feelings of anxiety created in the recipient. So work on your facial posture free from downturned lip frowns, and between the eyes wincing/concentrating looks that come across as anger or fear. Some organization have secret hand signals between supervisors when they see a fellow supervisor using problematic facial posture with staff or customers, a finger tap to the cheek means you’re frowning, a finger tap between the eyes means you’re wincing.

2. Staff Feeling Underappreciated and Taken for Granted is the most common source of workplace problems. But this can be headed off by using “one-on-ones” to show you care about each staff members individually. Take staff members aside and ask what’s on your mind or how are you doing, and then ask is there anything I can do to help. This only take a minute but goes a long way toward making staff feel appreciated (P.S. Just don’t do it in proximity to an error by the staff person which will then come across as veiled criticism rather than caring).

3. Surprise Criticism Triggers Reflexive Self-Defensiveness, so instead:

-Ask for permission before giving advice or calling out errors during walkarounds. Start out with Can I give you some feedback… and wait for a response to avoid triggering self-defensive emotions.

-Ask for advice rather than give it. For example, instead of pointing out for example that they need to keep their group closer together, try saying It’s always hard keeping everyone all together for skimboard lessons, do you have any thoughts on how we could make them want to participate more

4. Personal Friendships between Supervisors and Staff Create differing Expectations – Be Ready

To a staff person, personal friendship with their boss means easier assignments, special privileges, and having boss-friend look the other way on rule violations. But to bosses, their personal friendship with a staff person is assumed to mean extra effort and help for boss by the friend-staff person. Do you see the problem here? It’s coming so be ready and recognize that inherently differing expectations in boss-staff friendships are guaranteed to end in grief unless differing expectations are discussed openly and/or better yet, personal professional boundaries are maintained.

D. Why Should any of this Matter (To You):

Because it boils down to having a happy and fulfilling life. Like everyone, the main career advice you probably have been getting in some form or another is “find something you love”.

The problem with this well meaning advice is that when you are young and haven’t had enough experiences to know what your choices are, its pretty hard to know what you love when you see it. Another even bigger problem with this well meaning advice is that (hard truth be told), when it comes to careers, what people “love” is all pretty much the same thing; a mission that matters, prestige, authority over others, money, and being able to use creativity and self-expression.

So the real challenge in life is not so much “finding something you love”. It is finding something you love that someone will let you do as opposed to the thousand other people who want to do it. Helping with this challenge is the reason for this write-up, giving you a leg up in the world of work, so you can not only find something you love, but have a reasonable chance that someone will think enough of you to give you a chance to actually do it.

E. Parting Advice:

The best advice anyone can give a young person is to be careful about advice. This writer for one, cannot recall a single piece of education, career, or financial advice received as a young person that turned out to be true in the long run. And in fact, most of what seemed like good advice at the time from experts in a position to know, turned out to be so wrong as to be comical. For example:

-There’s little chance of widespread adoption of personal computers, its just too expensive to make the needed memory chips.

(My first Computer Science Professor).

-You can never get ahead with dot com stocks, stick with the industrials with proven earnings and dividends.

(My first Stock Broker)

-There will never be much development in Bellevue, its too hard to get across the lake from Seattle.

(My first Real Estate Agent).

-Going to law school doesn’t make sense anymore, lawyers never retire and there’s already more than will ever be needed.

(The first Lawyer I knew)

It is not that givers of bad advice are bad people, they are just well meaning people who are still fighting the last war so to speak. What they learned from the past controls how they think about the future. But the problem is, the future is always different from the past.

So with this warning about advice, I’m going to give you some non-advice advice that may or may not be useful. But at least you know it is coming from someone who has received enough bad advice to possibly know it when he sees it.

-Get very good at something competitive, anything, it doesn’t matter what it is. The process of getting near the top of your game in any challenging endeavor will help give you the fortitude and confidence to get to the top in something bigger and more important when you find it.

-It might take some luck to find good opportunities, but luckily it doesn’t take your own luck, it only takes the luck of someone you have known. If you start young doing a great job at things people trust you to do, when one of those many many people you have impressed over the years runs across the next startup company or opportunity that takes off like a rocket, they will be scouring their memory banks for outstanding people they have known that they can bring in to help. They will need you, and they will look you up. Both my wife and I owe our own careers to this dynamic, and have also been in the position multiple times of scouring our memory banks for people we have known who we would trust to bring on board organizations that are taking off. Even at Beach Camp MMA we get contacted by former staff persons from years ago trying to remember someone they had worked with here who they think would be perfect for some job opportunity in their current organization.

So based on all this, the sooner you start impressing people the better. With school and summer jobs and internships, you cross paths with a lot more people and get to know more people better when you are young than you will after college or grad school. And the competition when you are young is a lot less because most young people haven’t yet figured out what you are learning right here right now. So the sooner you start impressing people, with the large number of people you will work with along the way, your opportunities for happiness and having a career you love, will no longer depend on luck, it becomes a statistical certainty.

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Oh, and one last thing, if someone gives you an office, turn the light on. Sitting in dark office = kid thing, not adult. -JT