Making Your Career “Antifragile!”

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In his new book, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, Nassim Taleb, a best-selling author, posits that unless something is constantly challenged by the natural order, things tend to stay fragile and to break. On the other hand if the natural perturbing forces constantly challenge such things they become more robust, intelligent, and better with time and survive longer. In a way Taleb is reframing the age-old Darwin’s statement: Only the adaptable survive!

Taleb constructed the word Untifragile to convey a specific meaning to what he had in mind. Many think that “tough” or “strong” are adequate words to convey what is unbreakable as a good choice, but these words do not covey an ability to learn from perturbations to become more robust with time and intelligent with experience.

In his book Taleb points to things and systems that grow big by virtue of their “success,” but how they are not able to adapt to changes and are destined to the scrap pile. Examples abound: The US Postal Service, which generated some $90B/Yr. in revenues and profits to match even when emails were emerging and the Internet was still young, refused to adapt to the emergent forces. It is losing money today to the tune of some $15.9B (in 2012 alone), with rapidly shrinking operations, lay-offs, and an uncertain future; yet another example from the nature itself is how a willow plant survives gale-force winds and thrives, but a 100-year old mighty oak tree falls to the soaked ground by the same wind. There are many such examples of fragility and antifragility.

Extending the Antifragile concept to one’s career we can conclude that “stable” jobs are bad for you career!

Why is that?

The logic of reasoning is simple: a stable job (think of all those working for the USPS doing the same thing year in and year out) gives you a false sense of security. Thus when the job does end unexpectedly, you cannot find alternate ways to re-employ yourself. Who can forget the story of a machinist, who was laid off during the 2008 downturn, after doing the exact same job for 35 years? He first refused to accept an alternative to finding himself employment. Finally, he found himself a job as a sales person. The night before the first day on the new job he was found dead (at 53 years of age) of a heart failure in his sleep. That night he had expressed to his wife his anxiety over how to be a sales person in his new job!

So, if you feel secure in your current job remind yourself of the possibility that you need to immunize yourself against fragility and become antifragile. In my own case I was first laid off when I was head of engineering of a high-tech company when I was 48 (some 22 years back!). Taking stock of the situation I decided that I was not going back into engineering for the fear that although I could find another job at 48, when I asked myself the question, what I’d do if this repeated at 58, I did not have a clear answer. That is when I decided to change my career. Since then I have gone through two more lay-offs and four different careers (I am currently in my fifth career, always thinking of my sixth). Such changes are hard to contemplate, but are easier to implement if you set your mind to them. Besides, such opportunities allow you to uncover your own strengths.

So, what must one do to make their career “antifragile”? Here is my guidance:

1. If you are not learning and professionally growing in your current job you must reflect on what is going on and what must you do to change that.
2. Stop being merely an order taker and doing a good job to get by to earn your regular paycheck. Identify opportunities that are not apparent in your job and work to flesh them out to improve things. Look beyond the obvious and go up and down the value chain (including the customer, no matter how far removed from you) and find ways to improve customer experience.
3. Learn to take risks in your current role and work with your boss to get something if you succeed in your above-and-beyond endeavor. Negotiate this before hand, so that you have established your intent and reward for the extra job that you are taking on. If you bring this up after you delivered, it carries little weight!
4. Keep on the look out for similar jobs outside your company and see how they’re morphing with changing technology and market forces. Do not become an employee with a “USPS” mindset.
5. Build some momentum in your current job and THEN start marketing yourself. Building this momentum by taking on new tasks/responsibilities will give you new confidence marketing yourself.
6. Keep your network active and growing. Strong network is the one within your own area of work. A weak network is the one outside your immediate area of work. Start growing your weak network in the area that you want to pursue as your next career/job. In major career transitions it is the weak network that is more helpful. Those in your strong network are often unable to see beyond what they already know about you!
7. Changing careers and jobs with a new flavor can become easier if you seek professional help. Do not try to bootstrap something you might do once in five to 10 years. Recruit help from those who do this for a living. It is well worth the price.
8. Learn how to learn from your failures. If you have not failed a few times in undertaking new risks then you haven’t reached out far enough to test your potential. I find that people often underestimate what they can achieve and overestimate what people around them may think if they fail!
9. No matter how successful you are in an endeavor do not assume that it will continue unabated. Always look for perturbations—small and big—to adjust your thinking about what is to come and act accordingly. Here, a little paranoia can save you!
10. Find someone to mentor as you embark on your transition. You’ll learn much by mentoring, while you give something valuable to someone who could benefit from it!

Good luck!