Docmenting down some core thoughts I’ve had in mind, based on my 6 year working experience so far. I could describe it as something slightly unconventional - most notably by taking early risks and still somehow throwing myself into places out of my comfort zone.
Some core lessons learned so far - while I still consider myself at a relatievly “early” stage of my career.
1. Entities can ofer a Spectrum of opportunities and trade offs
Working in small companies affords high responsibility and little structure; possibly accelerated in pathway, but at the same time, brutally uncertain. Working in large companies can offer a stable and clearer but slower pathway Working in intermediates somewhere in between will exhibit characteristics of both.
I’m concious that these can be days where it can be the best of both worlds (agility and useful structure), but equally, days where you get the worst of both worlds (bureaucracy, and mess)
In a similar theme too: it’s worth asking if its desirable or the right time to be a Big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a Big pond On new opportunities and calculated risks One mental model I picture when looking at new opportunities is its door-opening prospects. I pictuer it as a stem, leading to a branch, and with each selected branch offering further opportunities to branch out (and so on and so forth).
This likely applies moer earlier in one’s career when one can afford to be a little more divergent.
2. Each opportunity should open more doors.
I took a calculated risk leaving the Government to move to a startup. I had considered a next move that could open more doors by domain (e.g. Startups, Joint Ventures, entrepreneurship), functions (Strategy, finance; and now Business Development, Sales, Marketing); and really useful skills (resourcefulness, multitasking) and doing so through getting my hands (very) dirty.
3. Accelerating learning through intention and external parties
The interesting thing about being supported by good people in a small company is some degree of access to a certain calibre of discussion (boardroom-level), and the insight and advice from such individual.
Likewise, on an operational basis, mentorship, especially from entrepreneurs can be very insightful on how one can build things from scratch.
4. Leveraging Multipliers and enablers
At end goal is to eventually not have to be too active in seeking work Keeping connections warm, friendly, and professional is key I would add that this is something that should scale more with time, and is also highly tied to a region
5. Lifelong Learning, intentionally
Never turn down a free opportunity to learn
Active learning is also invaluable - short recollections such as this, or one other work or management related themes has been useful to distill and apply the insights of others who have done it before.
As busy as it gets, document, distill and practice learnings
The Three Phases since coming out to work - as applied to myself today, and in the future
- Experience across Government, startups, scale ups and MNCs.
- Experience from Strategic / analytical portions (doing strategic planning)
- Experience in being Imaginative and visionary (understanding the vision of others’, picturing bold beliefs and being creative with resources)
- Experience in operations and execution (getting dirty into processes, project management, some front line customer engagements)
This covers most of the HAIR leadership framework (Helicopter, Analytical, Imagation, Reality)
One last area i’m curious about is a fundamental block about the north start i’ve chose: Technology and Product Development