Top 4 Career Development Books? Glad you asked.

Too busy to read? Here’s your summary: 

• Try a lot of different things. (Range)

• Know when to quit those things. (Quit)

• Become VERY good at something. (So Good They Can't Ignore You)

• Understand what motivates you to take action. (The Four Tendencies)

So Good They Can’t Ignore You

By Cal Newport

Read this one 10+ years ago when it came out and it completely changed my outlook on everything related to my career. Newport's idea is that a fulfilling career doesn't come from following your passion, it comes from being excellent at what you do, which leads to greater autonomy and more meaningful work. Wish this had been available to me in high school. Would have saved myself $80k in student loans and I’d have a more useful degree than Music Business. (Yes, that’s a thing. Let me know if you ever need a tour plan or have questions on royalties.)

“Passion comes after you put in the hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before. In other words, what you do for a living is much less important than how you do it.” 

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

By David Epstein

I am seriously still so angry that this book was out for over 3 years before I stumbled upon it. This is a fascinating (and data-backed) journey about specialists vs generalists and why generalists often have a better ability to adapt to changing circumstances and innovate. You’ll learn to embrace a non-linear, meandering career path. And if you are a parent, you’ll finally have no question or guilt about “starting them early” in specific sports or music because the data shows that it really doesn’t matter if you do or not.

“Everyone is digging deeper into their own trench and rarely standing up to look in the next trench over, even though the solution to their problem happens to reside there.”

Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away

By Annie Duke

Written by a former pro poker player, this one covers how to make better decisions in an uncertain world. Quitting has an inherently negative implication for most of us. Duke's premise is that it's ok (and many times better!) to just quit. This one will help you with decision making and figuring out when is the right time to bail on something. I quit 3 jobs over 2 years after reading this, have zero regret, and am better off because of it.

“Success does not lie in sticking to things. It lies in picking the right thing to stick to and quitting the rest.”

The Four Tendencies

By Gretchen Rubin

This book outlines four different groups based on how each responds to inner and outer expectations. Once you understand which group you fall in, it becomes much easier to motivate yourself and others (your teams, your kids!) to take action. For example, I’m a Questioner in this framework which means outer expectations have very little impact on my actions, I do things because of inner expectations that I hold myself to. In short, I resist doing anything that doesn't make sense or lacks purpose. Working for myself and with clients that have limited amounts of my time has been the perfect way to force prioritization and ensure that 100% of the things I’m working on are meaningful.

“When we consider our own Tendency, we can create circumstances and messages that will work best for us, and when we consider other people's Tendencies, we can create circumstances and messages that will work best for them.”