Brass Tack Thinking - Your Career Is Not LuckI’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826)

Your long-term success does not depend on fortunate turns of circumstance. Those that have made something of themselves – with rare heiress exception – didn’t just get handed everything they’ve got.

If you want to adjust where you’re headed, you have to be willing to slide behind the steering wheel and drive. All the energy and smarts you have in there can be channeled into cursing the impossibility of your circumstances, or into taking charge of as much as you can and embracing responsibility for your own actions.

Take chances.

So this isn’t necessarily the road I’d recommend for everyone, but almost three years ago, I quit my job. Without a plan (that’s the part I don’t recommend). But I knew I was unhappy, unfulfilled, unmotivated. I had a mortgage and a one year old daughter. But the future for me depended on my doing something different, and not waiting for that opportunity to come and find me. I knew I needed to create it.

Yours might not be so dramatic, or it might be. Maybe it’s doing what Chris Guillebeau did and moving halfway around the world to spend time dedicated to a cause you love. Maybe it’s just taking on a side project that could lead to bigger things. Starting a blog. Maybe it’s moving to a new city. How small or big those chances are depend on you, but I believe that nothing lifechanging happens unless there’s risk and chance involved.

Be willing to start somewhere. Or re-start somewhere. Maybe anywhere.

Many years ago, I worked as a lowly development assistant, filing papers and sharpening pencils (yes, for real). I held down three jobs while I earned my keep, because one job wouldn’t pay my rent. And I worked my tail off to earn more responsibility by proving I could not only meet expectations, but blow them out of the water. Are you willing to get your hands dirty, go above and beyond, start in the trenches?

If you can’t overhaul your career right now or make a big change because your finances prohibit, plan for it. Save money. Give yourself an exit strategy. When I quit my job, mine included the willingness to work at Target if I needed to to make ends meet, or to dust off my bartending skills. Are you willing to do what it takes? Whatever it takes?

If it’s not working, do something.

Unhappiness in your job and career can be exacerbated by a bad boss, a poor position fit, being downsized. But those are obstacles, not immutable truths. They are situational, not absolute. Ultimately, you’re in the driver’s seat. You can create something. And you can and do decide how to react to the challenges thrown in your path.

Everyone faces bad circumstances, bad timing, things out of our control. How we respond to those challenges counts for a lot. You can either curse the river and call yourself a victim of the current, or you can get busy and build a bridge.

Shake loose your notions of a “job”.

Some of you need and want to work for someone else. Some want to do their own thing. But there are zillions of ways to make a living, and not all of them are obvious. Be willing to get creative, crazy, sideways when you think about what your world might look like. As for what you majored in in college? I was a music performance major and didn’t graduate. That doesn’t have to dictate your world.

Jobs are moments. Careers – dare I say callings – are long, winding roads. They’re defined by the entire mosaic, not the individual tiles. Rework your notions of what constitutes a “job” or “work”, and suddenly the whole picture starts to look different.

Get good at something.

More tough love from the Tacks: If you want to be a marketer but you suck at marketing, it’s not going to work. If you want to be the next ProBlogger but you just don’t have the chops for writing and that relentless cycle of creating information, products, and affiliate marketing, you’ll constantly struggle. If you want to be a professional speaker but lack people skills and stage presence, that might not be the calling that suits you.

But you too have strengths. My friend Jason Amunwa is a crack designer and marketer for small business. Michelle Wolverton is outstanding at helping other people get organized and stay sane. My co-tack Tamsen has a gift for insight into what makes people tick, and what makes them unique. CC Chapman is one of the most creative people I know and he can help other people tap into their own creativity. Julien Smith has an uncanny ability to see the things in the world that other people miss and hit you upside the head with them (in a good way). James Chartrand can freaking write.

Being self-aware enough to know what you’re good at – and what you aren’t – is important to finding a career path that’s both exhilarating AND sets you up to be successful. That take some time and exploration, and the courage to ask other people’s help to identify those strengths. But it matters a great deal.

Let Go of Luck.

Not all of this has to apply to work. The same principles apply to personal fulfillment, though the lenses and words change a bit.

Either way, stop looking at people who seem to enjoy personal and professional success as “gosh, they’re so lucky to have a job/life/whatever they love.” Most of us who have jobs we enjoy have worked really freaking hard to get there, to design situations and circumstances in our favor, to walk away from situations that aren’t working, and most of us are never willing to settle for the status quo.

But there is plenty of room for you to join us. Plenty. In fact, I’ve got a seat right over here. But I’m guessing you have a few things to do first, so I’ll be here when you get back.

See you soon.