November 24, 2023 • 26 mins
Ever wondered what creative approaches exist to propel professional growth?
How can creativity become the driving force for career advancement?
Today, Jay will guide us through the keys to mastering growth and innovation in your professional journey. He kicks off this episode with a powerful reminder: "It all begins right now." Discover how understanding your company's algorithm can be a game-changer, and learn the art of studying patterns effectively to propel your growth.
Jay unveils the seven essential steps to drive innovation in your organization. From identifying your company's growth area to embracing acceleration as a catalyst for disruption, Jay provides invaluable insights into navigating the ever-changing landscape of success.
He moves on to share the importance of investing in what you're good at and mastering the art of creative networking. Learn how to enter the flow state and be in the zone, unlocking your full potential. Jay encourages us to connect things that may seem unexpected, unveiling the hidden gems of creativity and growth.
In this episode, you'll learn:
How to plan for your career path
The ways you can excel at work
How to make meaningful connections
How to accelerate your career growth
Join Jay as he unravels the secrets to growth, helping you chart a course towards a brighter and more fulfilling future.
With Love and Gratitude,
Jay Shetty
What We Discuss:
00:00 Intro
02:24 It All Begins Right Now
06:37 #1: Understand Your Company’s Algorithm
11:48 How to Study Patterns Effectively
13:12 #2: Identify Your Organization’s Growth Area
15:40 #3: If You’re Accelerating, You’re Going to Disrupt the Organization
17:30 #4: Invest in What You Are Good At
22:08 #5: Learn the Art of Creative Networking
23:55 #6: Be in the Flow State, Be in the Zone
25:54 #7: Connect Things that Seem Unexpected
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, if you're listening right now, do me a
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(00:21):
that is, but we have uploaded two new episodes every
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and I'll let you know if that ever changes. But
right now, there's two new episodes Monday and Friday every
single week. I don't want you to keep missing out,
so please subscribe and turn on your notifications, and I
can't wait for you to listen to our latest episodes.
(00:43):
It's important to know this. If you're accelerating your career,
and if you like that word, accelerate, you will disrupt
the status quo. As long as you're not doing anything
illegal or dodge or whatever it may be, it's okay
to rustle with some funders. You will everyone welcome back
to On Purpose. I'm your host, Jay Shetty, and I'm
(01:07):
so grateful that you've come back for this solo episode.
It's that time of year where I like to get
reflective and introspective because as it comes to the end
of a year, it's so important to use our time
wisely to think back as to what we would edit
for next year, what we would improve, what we would remove,
(01:28):
and how we're going to move forward now. Today's episode
is all about creative ways to accelerate your career in
twenty twenty four and do the work you love. How
many of you know that you could be doing better
at work? How many of you know raise your hands,
nod your heads if you can not if you're driving.
(01:50):
How many of you know that there's more you can
bring creatively, innovatively and productivity wise to your workplace. And
how many of you know that you want to bring love, passion,
and enthusiasm because there's a promotion that you're after, there's
a shift that you're after, there's a transition that you're wanting,
(02:12):
and maybe some of you are even wanting to quit
your job and pursue your passion. If that's you, then
this episode is for you. If you know a friend
who's going through a tough time period right now at work,
trying to figure it out. This is the episode for them. Now.
You might be wondering why the title has twenty twenty
four in it. You're like, Jay, it's twenty twenty three.
(02:34):
I know it's November, but why are we talking about
twenty twenty four. I'll tell you why. It's because twenty
twenty four begins now. Actually, every day you will experience
for the rest of your life from now on in
your life begins now. It all begins right now. And
what's really interesting is that we often wait for the
(02:55):
date to come around to make a change, to make
an effort to think about it. We wait till the
first of January to think, well, what do I want
to do this year? And by then it's too late.
It's almost like you wake up in the morning and
you think, well, what do I want to do today?
All of a sudden, that is a wasted thought, right,
You've wasted time because you haven't given yourself the opportunity
(03:15):
to go straight into the groove with being active, being energized,
being engaged. But now you're spending half the day trying
to figure it out. It's the same as what we
do for entertainment. We sit down to say, well, what
should we watch tonight? And you spend an hour and
a half looking for something to watch. Maybe you watch
ten minutes of it, you don't like it, and you
turn it off. Right, how many times have you done that?
(03:36):
We've all been there, and it's really interesting, isn't it.
We wait till the moment in order to think about
how important it is now that doesn't matter for some things.
It works And you may be thinking, well, Jay, how
does that count as being present? Well, it does because
you're valuing the present so much because you realize the
effect it has on the future. That is what makes
(03:57):
you want to be present right now. Now, there are
five weeks left till the end of the year, and
those can be used to prepare for next year's wins.
They can be used proactively be ready in your mindset now.
By the way, at this time of year, I also
take a break. I also look forward to resting and
(04:19):
refueling and rejuvenating, and that's part of what's going to
help me win for next year. So I'm not taking
away celebrating and having a good time. I love to
do all that, and I will be doing all of
that as well. But I also want you for the
time you still do have at work to think about this.
The time that I am at work, I always use
the end of year to plan for the year ahead.
It gives me a head start next year when I
(04:41):
get back after the holidays, and it stops me from
trying to play catch up with myself. How many times
do you come back in January and you think you're
already behind, right, you think you've already missed out on something,
You already think there's too many opportunities. You already think that, oh,
I should have been ahead, I could have done this,
And then that that perpetuates the thought of the year.
(05:02):
That becomes the thought of the year, right, it becomes
the focus of the year, and playing catch up. I
should have done more last year, I should have done this,
I could have done that. And it's so important to
get ahead for yourself. This isn't about you ahead of
your friends, your colleagues, the people that you work with.
It's not about that. It's about you feeling in charge
(05:23):
and control of your life. Now. This was inspired because
I speak to so many organizations. Just this month, I've
spoken to some of the biggest, biggest corporate companies in
the country, and I've been traveling around speaking to them,
and I'm sitting down with individuals that work inside these organizations.
Some of them are even entrepreneurs outside the organizations. And
(05:44):
I talk to people about stories of their experiences, why
they stayed at a company for thirty years, why they
left after three months, what made them switch career paths.
And today I want to share with you some of
my biggest takeaways as well, because I think people often
forget that I alway worked in the corporate world as well,
and during that time, I also wanted to accelerate my career.
(06:05):
I wanted to accelerate my career creatively, I wanted to
accelerate my career professionally, and I wanted to find ways
of being better and standing out. How many of you
right now feel like you're always fitting in, You're not
standing out, You're being unnoticed right, No one's spotting your potential,
people are not seeing you for who you are and
(06:28):
what you can bring, and you're actually feeling like you
just blend in. Right. If you're feeling that way, this
is what you need to think about. So let's dive
into number one. This is without a doubt, I would
say this is the most important skill in life, right,
not just at work. This is the most important creative
(06:51):
skill in life. And it will sound like it isn't,
but I want you to give it a moment. So
the skill is hidden behind this lesson, and the lesson
is understand your company's algorithm. Now, you may hear words
like algorithm related to social media, related to the Internet,
(07:12):
related to the online world. Right when we talk about
TikTok or Instagram, everyone's always talking about the algorithm. Now,
if we really think about it for a second, all
algorithm actually means reading the dictionary. Definition is a process
or set of rules to be followed in calculations or
other problem solving operations, especially by a computer. Now, the
(07:37):
part that I love about this is a process or
set of rules to be followed, right in order to
have success, in order for something to work. And what's
really fascinating is that your company also has an algorithm.
And the skill, the number one skill that I believe
we all need is pattern spotting, pattern recognition, pattern analysis,
(08:00):
and then actions based on that pattern analysis. What I
find in an organization is most of us are listening
to what we're told to do to succeed and missing
what we see is what makes people successful. Let me
take that again. Most of us are listening to what
(08:21):
we're told to do to help us succeed and missing
what we see helps people succeed. I'll give you an example.
When I was working in the corporate world, we were
told that to be really good at our careers, we
had to get good at Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
And that seemed like a fairly small goal. It feeled
(08:41):
fairly reachable for most people, and it probably wasn't challenging enough.
But then when I looked around at the people who
were giving our presentations, who were talking, who were guiding us,
that wasn't their skill set. Their PowerPoint didn't look the
best to me, their Excel spreadsheet didn't look the best
to me. All of a sudden, the pattern that they
were seting and sharing and the pattern that they were
(09:03):
living were two different things. And that's when I started
to take notice and think, well, what is that person
done at this company to succeed? What have they done?
And by the way, our minds, generally wired for negativity,
will come up with all sorts of reasons. Oh they've
been doing something dodgy. Oh they've just been sucking up.
(09:23):
Oh they've just been putting in extra time. Like our
mind will come up with easy answers in order for
us to not have to do the hard work. Our
mind often tells us everyone else got there easy, so
that we don't have to do the hard work. Right,
our mind makes other people's sacrifices and shifts and challenges
(09:45):
seem easy so that we can avoid hard work. So
I want you to take a real look at this.
I want you to really pay attention to this right.
Understand your company's algorithm. Spot the pattern, what working for people?
What is shifting for people? Look at the pattern, not
the person. We look at the person and we think, oh,
(10:06):
I don't like them. I don't like their personality. I
don't really I don't know how they ever made it there.
I don't get it. Don't look at the personality. Look
at the pattern. What is the pattern? What I found
in the companies that I've worked in is that it
was about who you know. For a lot of people,
it's about who you know. Now you may sit there
and say, well I don't want to know that person. Well,
then the chances are that we won't do well at
(10:29):
that company. Right, Okay, who do I need to know?
Another thing that I saw is that it was people
who were able to go above and beyond. The people
who were succeeding were not the people who were doing
the bare minimum, were not the people who were shirking responsibility.
It was people who were able to take responsibility in
(10:50):
areas that matter, right, in areas that matter to the company.
This is a big point. Pattern spotting is not just
about spotting the pattern that makes sense to you. It's
spotting the patterns that make sense to the company. So,
for example, when I joined this corporate company that I
(11:12):
worked for, I noticed that the pattern was in line
of growing the digital side of the business. That was
the area of focus. That's what they wanted to build on.
And if I started notice that, it would have made
no sense for me to not give my energy to
that area. Right. That is so important to not let
(11:33):
go of that energy to build and develop that area.
If the company is focusing on digital focus, right, it's
focusing on certain aspects of the business, It's so important
that your energy and your skills get directed there as well.
So how do we study patterns effectively. Number one, select
your case study i e. People who get promoted, and equally,
(11:56):
you could study why people don't get promoted. Right. I
literally did that. I looked at people who are succeeding,
and I looked at people who were failing. Then I
analyzed why it was again not focusing on personality traits,
but focusing on the pattern of how they operate inside
the organization. And third, this is really important, emulate. Don't
(12:18):
imitate when we're imitating, when we try and be like someone,
when we try and kind of trying to shadow someone's personality,
it doesn't work. We have to emulate that energy. Now
you mean always sitting there going jay Wow, this sounds
like I'm playing games. It's not. It's pattern spotting. Everything
in the world, whether it's investing, whether it's real estate,
(12:39):
whether it's a healthy relationship. Life is all about pattern spotting.
What does it mean When you're looking at how someone
builds good habits, it's pattern spotting. When you're analyzing someone's discipline,
what are you looking at? It's pattern spotting. Look at
the patterns inside your organization. Some of these patterns become
easier to track through technology, right, and see how many
(13:01):
emails someone sends. You can see the type of conversation
that they leave to have on a phone call versus
an email. You can see the meetings and the way
people navigate them. This is number one. Now number two
kind of link to the first point, but identify your
organization's growth area. Now, this will likely be a technology.
It could be AI, it could be a social media platform,
(13:24):
it could be augmented reality, it could be communication through technology.
Identifying your company's growth technology is probably one of the
biggest investments you can make right now. People who are
able to use chat GBT effectively are massively effective in
our company. It's a useful skill to have. And when
I see someone diving into that, when I see someone
(13:47):
engaged with that, it's exciting for me because I'm thinking
to myself, Okay, this is the person that's understanding this
platform and this app and I now know that we
have someone on the team who's thinking about that. This
applies to social media too. If someone's able to focus
deeply on a platform and understand how it works, that's
really useful. This is what I was I remember when
(14:09):
I joined the corporate company I worked at, they were
working on social media as a big part of their
digital strategy. So inside the digital growth area, there were
many different things. There was crypto, there was VR, and
there was social media. Now here's the personalization part. Crypto
wasn't exciting to me at the time. By the way,
(14:29):
this was ten years ago before crypto was relevant. Now
you may say, Jay, you're an Idia. If crypto was
excited to you, it'd have been very lucrative. Sure, but
I didn't enjoy it. It's so important that I'm spotting
the growth area in my company that I love. Why
because I'll excel at it. Why because I'll perform better
at it if I'm aware of it. Right, So let
me focus first on that. Second of all, now that
(14:53):
I've focused on that area, that's why I chose social media.
For me, studying and learning about social media was so
much fun. It was so exciting, it was so interesting.
It was so enthralling, genuinely, like I was like a
little kid every day trying to learn about this new
thing that I knew nothing about, right, knew nothing about?
And so I want you to think about it. What
(15:15):
do you know nothing about? But that is a growth
there in your company. Most of us have never read
a book after we finished college. Most of us have
never tried to learn about a new platform since we
finished college. What can we do in order to change that?
How many of us are going to allow ourselves to
focus on a growth area inside our organization that could
(15:36):
make all the difference? Right? Okay? Number three, It's important
to know this that if you're accelerating your career, and
if you like that word accelerate, you will disrupt the
status quo. And I just I'm gonna say this because
I have to. As long as you're not doing anything
illegal or dodgy or whatever it may be, it's okay
(15:57):
to rustle some feathers you will. I remember that there
where senior people in my organization who were getting weirded
out by why this young person was trying to make
a change, trying to do things differently, coming up with
creative ideas, pitching them, and he was upsetting them. And
by the way, that was very weird for me. It's
amazing to me how some new person like me could
(16:17):
intimidate someone who'd been at the company for much longer
than me. And it's really uncomfortable to go through that.
But I want you to know that it's part of
the path. Right, Learning to be respectful, learning to let
your ideas talk for themselves and be disruptive and innovative
is the key. Disruption and innovation is not an act
(16:40):
of ego. Right, Disruption, creativity, innovation is not an act
of ego. It's not about being better than someone. It's
not about showing you are better than someone. It's not
about making someone else look bad. It's about presenting your
ideas in such a way that they are unstoppable that
someone can't ignore them. That's what we're after, that's the
(17:01):
goal of what we're trying to do and what we're
looking to do. And I think it's so important that
we remember that because it can so easily and very
quickly become an ego battle where it's now us against
the person. Notice how everything becomes personal, right we make
it about us against the person, instead of making about
(17:22):
the pattern, instead of making about the technology, instead of
making it about the creativity. Step number four. Let me
ask you this. If I told you I was going
to invest in one hundred hours of training for you coaching,
how would you decide how to spend that hundred hours
(17:45):
on things you're good at, things you're average at, or
things that you are bad at. How would you decide
to spread that hundred hours if you had the ratio
of figuring it out? So for most people, a lot
of people will go thirty three, thirty three, thirty three.
Just make it balanced. It makes sense. Some people will say, well,
(18:07):
ten ten, eighty, I'll spend most on what I'm bad at.
Some people will say, okay, well I will spend the
most on what I'm average at, so let me invest
in the middle part. Some will say, let me invest
in what I'm good at. Now there's no right or
wrong answer, But when they studied the healthiest, wealthiest, and
(18:27):
wisest people on the planet, they found that their breakdown
was eighty ten ten or one hundred zero zero. The healthiest, wealthiest,
and wisest people in the world went all in on
their strengths and didn't focus as much on their weaknesses.
So if they were already great at something, they invested
(18:49):
in it, because then they would become world class in it.
If you are a phenomenal creative, if you're phenomenal with
the technology, if you're a phenomenal strategist, go all in.
Read every book, go on every course, go on every program,
you will become unstoppable. Now here's the caveat. When it
comes to your hard skills, focus on your strengths. When
(19:11):
it comes to your soft skills, focus on your weaknesses.
If you're weak in empathy, in compassion, in communication, you
must work on it. But when it comes to your
hard skills strategy, Excel, PowerPoint leadership, make sure that you
focus on your strengths and go all in on them right,
(19:31):
become unstoppable, become phenomenal at those hard skills. Focus on
your strengths. See, there's this beautiful quote by Albert Einstein
where he said that everyone's a genius. But if you
judge your fish by its ability to climb a tree,
it will spend its whole life believing that it's stupid.
And so many of us are fishes trying to climb
a tree. So many of us are birds trying to swim,
(19:55):
So many of us are giraffes trying to be lions.
So many of it's a lions trying to be zebra.
And the list goes on, right. But our zone of genius,
our zone of flow, our zone of connection with ourselves
and being aligned with ourselves where we've become unstoppable should
not be ignored. And there's this incredible conversation that I
(20:18):
talk about often between Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. And
Steve Wozniak goes up to Steve Jobs and he says,
what do you even do? He says, what do you
even do? You're not a coder, you're not an artist,
you're not a marketer. What do you even do? And
Steve Job says, musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.
Now we'll take the ego out of that for a second,
(20:41):
but what that means is that his ability was not
to play the cello, the bass or the violin. His
ability was to bring it all together. What is your
ability play to that work, to that show that off
at work? And this is a big part of it,
demonstrate it. A lot of us want to defend our strengths,
but we don't demonstrate it. We want to be rewarded
(21:02):
for a strength we haven't shown yet, but we're not
demonstrating it. This was one of the biggest mistakes I
made in the workplace, where I was hoping someone would
spot my talents rather than me being able to demonstrate them.
Find creative ways. Creative outlets. Take on an extra curricular
at work, take on a group project at work, display it,
(21:23):
show it. People win them when they do things to
help their workplace win. Right. Do the thing that actually
helps your workplace win, not just that feels comfortable and
makes you feel busy. Right. A lot of people on
our teams in the past and companies used to organize
things that were easy for them, but the company didn't
really value it. Again, I'm sharing this. If you want
(21:44):
to win in any era, even if you're an entrepreneur,
if you're an entrepreneur, you have to do this. You
have to focus on your strength. So many entrepreneurs that
I know are forcing themselves to be influencers, or so
many influencers and are forcing themselves to be CEOs, and
both of those are taking away from the world your gift. Now. Fifth,
(22:09):
it's so important to creatively network. Now, what is creative networking?
A lot of people think networking is going to events
and handing out your card. It isn't. Creatively networking is
making sure that you reach out to everyone you want
to learn from in your organization. Now you may send
one hundred emails. I remember I used to email a
managing director every week, maybe even two to three, and
(22:33):
maybe out of the fifty managing directors I emailed, maybe
only two or three actually met me. But guess what
those two or three changed my career. Now you may say, oh,
that SAME's desperate. I don't want to be reaching out
to fifty people. I feel uncomfortable. I've found that the
person playing the game of numbers will never lose. If
you're not on one hundred doors, you will get one
(22:55):
to ten to open. If you're not on one thousand doors,
you will get one to one hundred to open. If
you're knock on a million doors, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. You get the point. A lot of us
are knocking on two doors, and when those two doors
don't open, we feel disheartened. Some of us are knocking
on twenty doors and then getting exhausted. The more doors
you knock on, the more we'll open up. It's just numbers, right,
(23:16):
It's just numbers. I remember the day after I realized
that I was struggling at a point in my career,
I sent a thousand emails to everyone I knew, creative emails,
personalized emails, focused emails. How are you using technology to
stay connected to people I love? Using social media to
stay connected to people that I love and appreciating Networking
(23:38):
is not a technique of being sleazy, and it's keeping
in touch with people you deeply care about. But if
someone's in touch with me consistently, effectively, healthily, then it
becomes so much more easier to collaborate and connect. Now
I want to share with you a couple more things.
Number six is flow state. Flow is a book. It's
a brilliant book. And flow state is a state where
(24:00):
we see artists, celebrities, authors, athletes all in the zone.
How many times have you seen Lebron James and thought
in the zone, or you saw Beyonce send or in
the zone, or you saw whoever it is that you
admire and respect Taylor's swift, right. Taylor's swift is in
the zone. Right. And when we're watching these people, we
(24:22):
always think, well, they're special, they're gifted. Really, they've just
tapped in to flow and flow state is where your
challenge meets your skills. Often what we experience is our
challenges above our skills, which is where we feel disheartened,
we feel unmotivated, we feel depressed. Right when your challenge
(24:43):
is above your skills, it can be demotivating. And then
some of us it expends to opposite, where our skills
are above our challenge. We feel bored, we feel lethargic,
we feel like we're not curious anymore. So what Flow state?
In the book, what Flow says is we have to
find a state where our challenges meet our skills. So,
at any given time in your career in twenty twenty four,
(25:04):
ask yourself, do you need to improve your challenge, increase
your challenge, or do you need to increase your skills? Now,
if it's your challenge, what are you going to do
to challenge yourself? Are you going to increase the scope?
Are you going to increase the scale? Are you going
to increase the level of responsibility? What are you doing
to challenge yourself? Challenge doesn't mean doing something entirely new.
It could mean doing something bigger. It doesn't mean doing
(25:25):
something bigger. It could be doing something with more detail.
It doesn't mean just doing something with more detail. It
could be doing lots of harder tasks and doing less.
It could be doing more right, challenges can look like
so many things. What's your challenge in twenty twenty four
that you're taking on? And what's the skill you need?
What's the skill you need to invest in? I want
(25:45):
you to reflect on that because literally that those two
questions could transform what twenty twenty four looks like for you.
And number seven to really be creative and accelerate your career.
Connect things that seem unexpected. The best solutions come out
when people do unexpected things. Steve Jobs connected calligraphy and computers.
(26:10):
Dyson connected art and diffuses, right like art and head
drivers and diffuses and vacuum cleaners. Who ever ever thought
that their vacuum cleaner would be good looking? Right? It's
amazing when two worlds collide. What two worlds are you
trying to connect? Steve Job said, creativity is just connecting things.
(26:33):
What are you connecting? Thank you so much for listening
to today. I wish you an amazing, amazing rest of
the year. Please come back for two episodes. Turn on
your notifications, subscribe, do not miss out, and I can't
wait to see you again for another episode
Hey, everyone, if you're listening right now, do me a
favor and turn on your notifications and subscribe to the podcast,
because so many of you have been telling me that
you haven't had access to the pod, and it makes
me sad because so many of you are dming me
and messaging me telling me that you're not getting notified
when I upload new episodes. Now I'm not sure why
(00:21):
that is, but we have uploaded two new episodes every
week on all platforms, absolutely free, every single week. I've
done it for the last four and a half years,
and I'll let you know if that ever changes. But
right now, there's two new episodes Monday and Friday every
single week. I don't want you to keep missing out,
so please subscribe and turn on your notifications, and I
can't wait for you to listen to our latest episodes.
(00:43):
It's important to know this. If you're accelerating your career,
and if you like that word, accelerate, you will disrupt
the status quo. As long as you're not doing anything
illegal or dodge or whatever it may be, it's okay
to rustle with some funders. You will everyone welcome back
to On Purpose. I'm your host, Jay Shetty, and I'm
(01:07):
so grateful that you've come back for this solo episode.
It's that time of year where I like to get
reflective and introspective because as it comes to the end
of a year, it's so important to use our time
wisely to think back as to what we would edit
for next year, what we would improve, what we would remove,
(01:28):
and how we're going to move forward now. Today's episode
is all about creative ways to accelerate your career in
twenty twenty four and do the work you love. How
many of you know that you could be doing better
at work? How many of you know raise your hands,
nod your heads if you can not if you're driving.
(01:50):
How many of you know that there's more you can
bring creatively, innovatively and productivity wise to your workplace. And
how many of you know that you want to bring love, passion,
and enthusiasm because there's a promotion that you're after, there's
a shift that you're after, there's a transition that you're wanting,
(02:12):
and maybe some of you are even wanting to quit
your job and pursue your passion. If that's you, then
this episode is for you. If you know a friend
who's going through a tough time period right now at work,
trying to figure it out. This is the episode for them. Now.
You might be wondering why the title has twenty twenty
four in it. You're like, Jay, it's twenty twenty three.
(02:34):
I know it's November, but why are we talking about
twenty twenty four. I'll tell you why. It's because twenty
twenty four begins now. Actually, every day you will experience
for the rest of your life from now on in
your life begins now. It all begins right now. And
what's really interesting is that we often wait for the
(02:55):
date to come around to make a change, to make
an effort to think about it. We wait till the
first of January to think, well, what do I want
to do this year? And by then it's too late.
It's almost like you wake up in the morning and
you think, well, what do I want to do today?
All of a sudden, that is a wasted thought, right,
You've wasted time because you haven't given yourself the opportunity
(03:15):
to go straight into the groove with being active, being energized,
being engaged. But now you're spending half the day trying
to figure it out. It's the same as what we
do for entertainment. We sit down to say, well, what
should we watch tonight? And you spend an hour and
a half looking for something to watch. Maybe you watch
ten minutes of it, you don't like it, and you
turn it off. Right, how many times have you done that?
(03:36):
We've all been there, and it's really interesting, isn't it.
We wait till the moment in order to think about
how important it is now that doesn't matter for some things.
It works And you may be thinking, well, Jay, how
does that count as being present? Well, it does because
you're valuing the present so much because you realize the
effect it has on the future. That is what makes
(03:57):
you want to be present right now. Now, there are
five weeks left till the end of the year, and
those can be used to prepare for next year's wins.
They can be used proactively be ready in your mindset now.
By the way, at this time of year, I also
take a break. I also look forward to resting and
(04:19):
refueling and rejuvenating, and that's part of what's going to
help me win for next year. So I'm not taking
away celebrating and having a good time. I love to
do all that, and I will be doing all of
that as well. But I also want you for the
time you still do have at work to think about this.
The time that I am at work, I always use
the end of year to plan for the year ahead.
It gives me a head start next year when I
(04:41):
get back after the holidays, and it stops me from
trying to play catch up with myself. How many times
do you come back in January and you think you're
already behind, right, you think you've already missed out on something,
You already think there's too many opportunities. You already think that, oh,
I should have been ahead, I could have done this,
And then that that perpetuates the thought of the year.
(05:02):
That becomes the thought of the year, right, it becomes
the focus of the year, and playing catch up. I
should have done more last year, I should have done this,
I could have done that. And it's so important to
get ahead for yourself. This isn't about you ahead of
your friends, your colleagues, the people that you work with.
It's not about that. It's about you feeling in charge
(05:23):
and control of your life. Now. This was inspired because
I speak to so many organizations. Just this month, I've
spoken to some of the biggest, biggest corporate companies in
the country, and I've been traveling around speaking to them,
and I'm sitting down with individuals that work inside these organizations.
Some of them are even entrepreneurs outside the organizations. And
(05:44):
I talk to people about stories of their experiences, why
they stayed at a company for thirty years, why they
left after three months, what made them switch career paths.
And today I want to share with you some of
my biggest takeaways as well, because I think people often
forget that I alway worked in the corporate world as well,
and during that time, I also wanted to accelerate my career.
(06:05):
I wanted to accelerate my career creatively, I wanted to
accelerate my career professionally, and I wanted to find ways
of being better and standing out. How many of you
right now feel like you're always fitting in, You're not
standing out, You're being unnoticed right, No one's spotting your potential,
people are not seeing you for who you are and
(06:28):
what you can bring, and you're actually feeling like you
just blend in. Right. If you're feeling that way, this
is what you need to think about. So let's dive
into number one. This is without a doubt, I would
say this is the most important skill in life, right,
not just at work. This is the most important creative
(06:51):
skill in life. And it will sound like it isn't,
but I want you to give it a moment. So
the skill is hidden behind this lesson, and the lesson
is understand your company's algorithm. Now, you may hear words
like algorithm related to social media, related to the Internet,
(07:12):
related to the online world. Right when we talk about
TikTok or Instagram, everyone's always talking about the algorithm. Now,
if we really think about it for a second, all
algorithm actually means reading the dictionary. Definition is a process
or set of rules to be followed in calculations or
other problem solving operations, especially by a computer. Now, the
(07:37):
part that I love about this is a process or
set of rules to be followed, right in order to
have success, in order for something to work. And what's
really fascinating is that your company also has an algorithm.
And the skill, the number one skill that I believe
we all need is pattern spotting, pattern recognition, pattern analysis,
(08:00):
and then actions based on that pattern analysis. What I
find in an organization is most of us are listening
to what we're told to do to succeed and missing
what we see is what makes people successful. Let me
take that again. Most of us are listening to what
(08:21):
we're told to do to help us succeed and missing
what we see helps people succeed. I'll give you an example.
When I was working in the corporate world, we were
told that to be really good at our careers, we
had to get good at Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
And that seemed like a fairly small goal. It feeled
(08:41):
fairly reachable for most people, and it probably wasn't challenging enough.
But then when I looked around at the people who
were giving our presentations, who were talking, who were guiding us,
that wasn't their skill set. Their PowerPoint didn't look the
best to me, their Excel spreadsheet didn't look the best
to me. All of a sudden, the pattern that they
were seting and sharing and the pattern that they were
(09:03):
living were two different things. And that's when I started
to take notice and think, well, what is that person
done at this company to succeed? What have they done?
And by the way, our minds, generally wired for negativity,
will come up with all sorts of reasons. Oh they've
been doing something dodgy. Oh they've just been sucking up.
(09:23):
Oh they've just been putting in extra time. Like our
mind will come up with easy answers in order for
us to not have to do the hard work. Our
mind often tells us everyone else got there easy, so
that we don't have to do the hard work. Right,
our mind makes other people's sacrifices and shifts and challenges
(09:45):
seem easy so that we can avoid hard work. So
I want you to take a real look at this.
I want you to really pay attention to this right.
Understand your company's algorithm. Spot the pattern, what working for people?
What is shifting for people? Look at the pattern, not
the person. We look at the person and we think, oh,
(10:06):
I don't like them. I don't like their personality. I
don't really I don't know how they ever made it there.
I don't get it. Don't look at the personality. Look
at the pattern. What is the pattern? What I found
in the companies that I've worked in is that it
was about who you know. For a lot of people,
it's about who you know. Now you may sit there
and say, well I don't want to know that person. Well,
then the chances are that we won't do well at
(10:29):
that company. Right, Okay, who do I need to know?
Another thing that I saw is that it was people
who were able to go above and beyond. The people
who were succeeding were not the people who were doing
the bare minimum, were not the people who were shirking responsibility.
It was people who were able to take responsibility in
(10:50):
areas that matter, right, in areas that matter to the company.
This is a big point. Pattern spotting is not just
about spotting the pattern that makes sense to you. It's
spotting the patterns that make sense to the company. So,
for example, when I joined this corporate company that I
(11:12):
worked for, I noticed that the pattern was in line
of growing the digital side of the business. That was
the area of focus. That's what they wanted to build on.
And if I started notice that, it would have made
no sense for me to not give my energy to
that area. Right. That is so important to not let
(11:33):
go of that energy to build and develop that area.
If the company is focusing on digital focus, right, it's
focusing on certain aspects of the business, It's so important
that your energy and your skills get directed there as well.
So how do we study patterns effectively. Number one, select
your case study i e. People who get promoted, and equally,
(11:56):
you could study why people don't get promoted. Right. I
literally did that. I looked at people who are succeeding,
and I looked at people who were failing. Then I
analyzed why it was again not focusing on personality traits,
but focusing on the pattern of how they operate inside
the organization. And third, this is really important, emulate. Don't
(12:18):
imitate when we're imitating, when we try and be like someone,
when we try and kind of trying to shadow someone's personality,
it doesn't work. We have to emulate that energy. Now
you mean always sitting there going jay Wow, this sounds
like I'm playing games. It's not. It's pattern spotting. Everything
in the world, whether it's investing, whether it's real estate,
(12:39):
whether it's a healthy relationship. Life is all about pattern spotting.
What does it mean When you're looking at how someone
builds good habits, it's pattern spotting. When you're analyzing someone's discipline,
what are you looking at? It's pattern spotting. Look at
the patterns inside your organization. Some of these patterns become
easier to track through technology, right, and see how many
(13:01):
emails someone sends. You can see the type of conversation
that they leave to have on a phone call versus
an email. You can see the meetings and the way
people navigate them. This is number one. Now number two
kind of link to the first point, but identify your
organization's growth area. Now, this will likely be a technology.
It could be AI, it could be a social media platform,
(13:24):
it could be augmented reality, it could be communication through technology.
Identifying your company's growth technology is probably one of the
biggest investments you can make right now. People who are
able to use chat GBT effectively are massively effective in
our company. It's a useful skill to have. And when
I see someone diving into that, when I see someone
(13:47):
engaged with that, it's exciting for me because I'm thinking
to myself, Okay, this is the person that's understanding this
platform and this app and I now know that we
have someone on the team who's thinking about that. This
applies to social media too. If someone's able to focus
deeply on a platform and understand how it works, that's
really useful. This is what I was I remember when
(14:09):
I joined the corporate company I worked at, they were
working on social media as a big part of their
digital strategy. So inside the digital growth area, there were
many different things. There was crypto, there was VR, and
there was social media. Now here's the personalization part. Crypto
wasn't exciting to me at the time. By the way,
(14:29):
this was ten years ago before crypto was relevant. Now
you may say, Jay, you're an Idia. If crypto was
excited to you, it'd have been very lucrative. Sure, but
I didn't enjoy it. It's so important that I'm spotting
the growth area in my company that I love. Why
because I'll excel at it. Why because I'll perform better
at it if I'm aware of it. Right, So let
me focus first on that. Second of all, now that
(14:53):
I've focused on that area, that's why I chose social media.
For me, studying and learning about social media was so
much fun. It was so exciting, it was so interesting.
It was so enthralling, genuinely, like I was like a
little kid every day trying to learn about this new
thing that I knew nothing about, right, knew nothing about?
And so I want you to think about it. What
(15:15):
do you know nothing about? But that is a growth
there in your company. Most of us have never read
a book after we finished college. Most of us have
never tried to learn about a new platform since we
finished college. What can we do in order to change that?
How many of us are going to allow ourselves to
focus on a growth area inside our organization that could
(15:36):
make all the difference? Right? Okay? Number three, It's important
to know this that if you're accelerating your career, and
if you like that word accelerate, you will disrupt the
status quo. And I just I'm gonna say this because
I have to. As long as you're not doing anything
illegal or dodgy or whatever it may be, it's okay
(15:57):
to rustle some feathers you will. I remember that there
where senior people in my organization who were getting weirded
out by why this young person was trying to make
a change, trying to do things differently, coming up with
creative ideas, pitching them, and he was upsetting them. And
by the way, that was very weird for me. It's
amazing to me how some new person like me could
(16:17):
intimidate someone who'd been at the company for much longer
than me. And it's really uncomfortable to go through that.
But I want you to know that it's part of
the path. Right, Learning to be respectful, learning to let
your ideas talk for themselves and be disruptive and innovative
is the key. Disruption and innovation is not an act
(16:40):
of ego. Right, Disruption, creativity, innovation is not an act
of ego. It's not about being better than someone. It's
not about showing you are better than someone. It's not
about making someone else look bad. It's about presenting your
ideas in such a way that they are unstoppable that
someone can't ignore them. That's what we're after, that's the
(17:01):
goal of what we're trying to do and what we're
looking to do. And I think it's so important that
we remember that because it can so easily and very
quickly become an ego battle where it's now us against
the person. Notice how everything becomes personal, right we make
it about us against the person, instead of making about
(17:22):
the pattern, instead of making about the technology, instead of
making it about the creativity. Step number four. Let me
ask you this. If I told you I was going
to invest in one hundred hours of training for you coaching,
how would you decide how to spend that hundred hours
(17:45):
on things you're good at, things you're average at, or
things that you are bad at. How would you decide
to spread that hundred hours if you had the ratio
of figuring it out? So for most people, a lot
of people will go thirty three, thirty three, thirty three.
Just make it balanced. It makes sense. Some people will say, well,
(18:07):
ten ten, eighty, I'll spend most on what I'm bad at.
Some people will say, okay, well I will spend the
most on what I'm average at, so let me invest
in the middle part. Some will say, let me invest
in what I'm good at. Now there's no right or
wrong answer, But when they studied the healthiest, wealthiest, and
(18:27):
wisest people on the planet, they found that their breakdown
was eighty ten ten or one hundred zero zero. The healthiest, wealthiest,
and wisest people in the world went all in on
their strengths and didn't focus as much on their weaknesses.
So if they were already great at something, they invested
(18:49):
in it, because then they would become world class in it.
If you are a phenomenal creative, if you're phenomenal with
the technology, if you're a phenomenal strategist, go all in.
Read every book, go on every course, go on every program,
you will become unstoppable. Now here's the caveat. When it
comes to your hard skills, focus on your strengths. When
(19:11):
it comes to your soft skills, focus on your weaknesses.
If you're weak in empathy, in compassion, in communication, you
must work on it. But when it comes to your
hard skills strategy, Excel, PowerPoint leadership, make sure that you
focus on your strengths and go all in on them right,
(19:31):
become unstoppable, become phenomenal at those hard skills. Focus on
your strengths. See, there's this beautiful quote by Albert Einstein
where he said that everyone's a genius. But if you
judge your fish by its ability to climb a tree,
it will spend its whole life believing that it's stupid.
And so many of us are fishes trying to climb
a tree. So many of us are birds trying to swim,
(19:55):
So many of us are giraffes trying to be lions.
So many of it's a lions trying to be zebra.
And the list goes on, right. But our zone of genius,
our zone of flow, our zone of connection with ourselves
and being aligned with ourselves where we've become unstoppable should
not be ignored. And there's this incredible conversation that I
(20:18):
talk about often between Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. And
Steve Wozniak goes up to Steve Jobs and he says,
what do you even do? He says, what do you
even do? You're not a coder, you're not an artist,
you're not a marketer. What do you even do? And
Steve Job says, musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.
Now we'll take the ego out of that for a second,
(20:41):
but what that means is that his ability was not
to play the cello, the bass or the violin. His
ability was to bring it all together. What is your
ability play to that work, to that show that off
at work? And this is a big part of it,
demonstrate it. A lot of us want to defend our strengths,
but we don't demonstrate it. We want to be rewarded
(21:02):
for a strength we haven't shown yet, but we're not
demonstrating it. This was one of the biggest mistakes I
made in the workplace, where I was hoping someone would
spot my talents rather than me being able to demonstrate them.
Find creative ways. Creative outlets. Take on an extra curricular
at work, take on a group project at work, display it,
(21:23):
show it. People win them when they do things to
help their workplace win. Right. Do the thing that actually
helps your workplace win, not just that feels comfortable and
makes you feel busy. Right. A lot of people on
our teams in the past and companies used to organize
things that were easy for them, but the company didn't
really value it. Again, I'm sharing this. If you want
(21:44):
to win in any era, even if you're an entrepreneur,
if you're an entrepreneur, you have to do this. You
have to focus on your strength. So many entrepreneurs that
I know are forcing themselves to be influencers, or so
many influencers and are forcing themselves to be CEOs, and
both of those are taking away from the world your gift. Now. Fifth,
(22:09):
it's so important to creatively network. Now, what is creative networking?
A lot of people think networking is going to events
and handing out your card. It isn't. Creatively networking is
making sure that you reach out to everyone you want
to learn from in your organization. Now you may send
one hundred emails. I remember I used to email a
managing director every week, maybe even two to three, and
(22:33):
maybe out of the fifty managing directors I emailed, maybe
only two or three actually met me. But guess what
those two or three changed my career. Now you may say, oh,
that SAME's desperate. I don't want to be reaching out
to fifty people. I feel uncomfortable. I've found that the
person playing the game of numbers will never lose. If
you're not on one hundred doors, you will get one
(22:55):
to ten to open. If you're not on one thousand doors,
you will get one to one hundred to open. If
you're knock on a million doors, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. You get the point. A lot of us
are knocking on two doors, and when those two doors
don't open, we feel disheartened. Some of us are knocking
on twenty doors and then getting exhausted. The more doors
you knock on, the more we'll open up. It's just numbers, right,
(23:16):
It's just numbers. I remember the day after I realized
that I was struggling at a point in my career,
I sent a thousand emails to everyone I knew, creative emails,
personalized emails, focused emails. How are you using technology to
stay connected to people I love? Using social media to
stay connected to people that I love and appreciating Networking
(23:38):
is not a technique of being sleazy, and it's keeping
in touch with people you deeply care about. But if
someone's in touch with me consistently, effectively, healthily, then it
becomes so much more easier to collaborate and connect. Now
I want to share with you a couple more things.
Number six is flow state. Flow is a book. It's
a brilliant book. And flow state is a state where
(24:00):
we see artists, celebrities, authors, athletes all in the zone.
How many times have you seen Lebron James and thought
in the zone, or you saw Beyonce send or in
the zone, or you saw whoever it is that you
admire and respect Taylor's swift, right. Taylor's swift is in
the zone. Right. And when we're watching these people, we
(24:22):
always think, well, they're special, they're gifted. Really, they've just
tapped in to flow and flow state is where your
challenge meets your skills. Often what we experience is our
challenges above our skills, which is where we feel disheartened,
we feel unmotivated, we feel depressed. Right when your challenge
(24:43):
is above your skills, it can be demotivating. And then
some of us it expends to opposite, where our skills
are above our challenge. We feel bored, we feel lethargic,
we feel like we're not curious anymore. So what Flow state?
In the book, what Flow says is we have to
find a state where our challenges meet our skills. So,
at any given time in your career in twenty twenty four,
(25:04):
ask yourself, do you need to improve your challenge, increase
your challenge, or do you need to increase your skills? Now,
if it's your challenge, what are you going to do
to challenge yourself? Are you going to increase the scope?
Are you going to increase the scale? Are you going
to increase the level of responsibility? What are you doing
to challenge yourself? Challenge doesn't mean doing something entirely new.
It could mean doing something bigger. It doesn't mean doing
(25:25):
something bigger. It could be doing something with more detail.
It doesn't mean just doing something with more detail. It
could be doing lots of harder tasks and doing less.
It could be doing more right, challenges can look like
so many things. What's your challenge in twenty twenty four
that you're taking on? And what's the skill you need?
What's the skill you need to invest in? I want
(25:45):
you to reflect on that because literally that those two
questions could transform what twenty twenty four looks like for you.
And number seven to really be creative and accelerate your career.
Connect things that seem unexpected. The best solutions come out
when people do unexpected things. Steve Jobs connected calligraphy and computers.
(26:10):
Dyson connected art and diffuses, right like art and head
drivers and diffuses and vacuum cleaners. Who ever ever thought
that their vacuum cleaner would be good looking? Right? It's
amazing when two worlds collide. What two worlds are you
trying to connect? Steve Job said, creativity is just connecting things.
(26:33):
What are you connecting? Thank you so much for listening
to today. I wish you an amazing, amazing rest of
the year. Please come back for two episodes. Turn on
your notifications, subscribe, do not miss out, and I can't
wait to see you again for another episode
Host
Jay Shetty
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