The Transplantability of Success

Curt Rosengren posts a great piece titled, "You're good at it...so what?".

Like most of Curt's posts, I see this is as a great piece of guidance to those considering a career change or even a company change. Clearly it's tough to turn away from a career that, based on external traits, is lavishly successful. But why are we, as an individual, successful at such a career?

Consider Dan. Dan is demonstrating himself to be a high potential candidate at Widget Corporation, where he does a wide array of financial analysis. Dan is beginning to realize that despite his success, he thinks he could find more enthusiasm in another career avenue. As he wallows in such a notion, he's paralyzed because of the what could be factor at Widget Corporation. But why was Dan so successful at Widget Corporation? Is it because he was born with a predestined route of success to perform financial analysis at Widget Corporation?

As expected, I'd argue not. I'd argue that Dan has a set of core traits, strengths, and competencies that, when directed toward his current job, create results, potential, and success. Maybe, for instance, Dan excels at the following:

• Crunching a lot of complex numbers quickly
• Managing his time effectively to produce the best results
• Communicating effectively with a wide variety of peers
• A strong bias for execution

But what's to say those traits can't be repositioned toward another career? Wouldn't this have the potential to create the same level of success? This is what I've come to call The Transplantability of Success.

If you've had such wild success following one career path, what's to say you can't realize the same success by transplanting the traits that made you successful and redirecting them? And so, in the case of Dan, he had all of the competencies to make him successful at Widget Corporation, but in such an avenue, he lacked happiness and energy. Imagine the success and internal fulfillment Dan could realize if he took those competencies and found a way to center them around the activity that brings him the most happiness.

Personally, I use this to digest the specialization my career path has taken. What if the technology industry further dries up and I no longer see it as a fulfilling and worthwhile route? Well, I'll just transplant!

Comments

[Ivan]

Hello, Best Site