So Good They Can’t Ignore You – by Cal Newport

‘Why skills trump passion in the quest for work you love’

This book is a real-world look at career progression and getting the most out of your working life. Newport argues that ‘follow your dreams’ is almost always bad advice, and in many cases, it’s actually dangerous.

Rule #1 – Don’t Follow Your Passion

#2 – Be So Good They Can’t Ignore You

Rule #3 – Turn Down A Promotion

#4 – Think Small, Act Big

Get the book summary we wrote here: www.whatyouwilllearn.com/summary

“If you want to love what you do, abandon the passion mindset (“what can the world offer me?”) and instead adopt the craftsman mindset (“what can I offer the world?”).”

  This book is a real-world look at career progression and getting the most out of your working life. Newport argues that ‘follow your dreams’ is almost always bad advice, and in many cases, it’s actually dangerous. How do people end up loving what they do? Don’t follow your passion, let it follow you in the quest to become so Good They Can’t Ignore you.

  Rule 1 Don’t follow your passion

  Steve Jobs stated to 23,000 people in his Stanford Commencement Speech:

“you’ve got to find what you love. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle”.

  This is the passion hypothesis which suggests that the key to finding occupational happiness is to first figure out what you are passionate about and then find a job that matches that passion.  We are told to lionize those with the courage to follow their passion and pity the conformist drones who cling to the safe path. People say do what you love and the money will follow.

Job Section

But Jobs wasn’t particularly interested in business or electronics as a student. He studied Western History and dance and dabbled in Eastern mysticism. This little bit of story wasn’t included in his speech. If Steve followed his own advice he would find himself at one of those Los Altos Zen Centers. Apple wasn’t born out of passion, it was the result of a lucky break – a small time scheme that took off. Do what Steve Jobs did, not what he said , learn more

  Conclusion 1 – Passion is rare: Newport includes the results of a survey of 539 Canadian university students about their passions. The Top5 5 were dance, hockey, skiing, reading and swimming. Though dear to their hearts, these didn’t have much to offer when choosing a job. Less than 4% of the passions stated have any relation to work or education.

  Conclusion 2 – Passion takes time: There was a survey of nurse assistants, finding out what the keys to passion at their work were. The strongest predictor of someone seeing their job as their calling was the number of years spent on the job. Not the people who followed passion to the position, but those who stick around long enough to be good at what they do .

  Conclusion 3 – Passion is the side effect of mastery: The third conclusion about passion, is that it is a function of 3 things: autonomy, competence and purpose. See # Drive. The passion hypothesis convinces people that there is some magic “right” job waiting for them. When they find it, they will realize “this is what I was meant to do”. The paradox and danger is, the more we focus on loving what we do , the less we end up loving it.

  Rule 2 – Be so Good They Can’t Ignore You 

  There are two separate mindsets we can adopt for our careers.

Craftsmen mindset – focus on what you can offer the world

Passion mindset – focus on what the world can offer you

When you focus on what the world or work offers you, it makes you hyper-aware of what you don’t like, leading to chronic unhappiness. This is essentially true for entry level positions, which by definition aren’t going to be filled with challenging projects and autonomy, those come later.

About Great Career

  No one owes you a great career, you need to earn it and it won’t be easy. Regardless of how you feel about your job right now, adopting the craftsmen mindset will be the foundation of which you will build a great career

  If you want a great job, you need to build up rare and valuable skills with the craftsmen mindset, with this you can acquire ‘career capital’. In an entry level job when you are skill-less, you are unfortunately going to hear “go change the water cooler” despite your plans to change the world. The elements that make a great job are autonomy, competence and purpose, if you want these rare and valuable things then you need to offer something rare and valuable in return. 

   Newport writes about Fleur, a lady 20 years into her marketing career that got stale, so she decided to quit everything to follow her passion and start a yoga studio. Essentially what she had done is discard the career capital acquired over many years and translated into a field where she has no capital. She essentially became the bottom of the skill hierarchy at yoga, with very little leverage in her yoga life. 

  Becoming a Craftsman 

  Jordan Tice spent the same amount of time as Cal in developing skills in guitar. But Jordan became the best in the world and Cal is just happy to strum the guitar. The difference here is, Tice went through the mental strain continuously learning something new, when he hit a wrong note he would immediately stop and give himself feedback. Spending time learning skills isn’t enough, you need to dedicate time to deliberate practice (reading/feedback/mental strain) and push beyond your comfort zone or capabilities. This is key to building career capital. 

  Rule 3 – Turn down a promotion 

  Getting the career capital is the hard part. Once you have it, you’ll probably be offered a pay rise or promotion. If you want a passionate career, you need to turn down the promotion. Instead, you can trade in the hard earned capital for autonomy. 

  If you want to work a 30 hour week from an overseas country, you probably can because you have made yourself indispensable enough for the organisation. They can’t let you go. 

  Rule 4 – think small, act big 

  You can trade in career capital for purpose, to have a mission in your work.  Missions are powerful because they focus your energy towards a useful goal, this in turn maximizes your impact on the world. People who feel their careers matter are more resistant to the strain of hard work. If you’ve developed enough career capital, you have the leverage to choose the best organisation (or start your own) that is aligned with your values. 

So Good They Can’t Ignore You book summary

The book itself is a replica of acquiring self confidence and recognize the hidden talent in you. The author “Cal Newport” emphasizes on recognizing the talent by following the passion.