Street Art in Bergen, Norway
Let me take a quick detour at this point and provide you, dear reader, with valuable career advice although rendered for free. Break the rules. Yes. Break every rule there might be when needed. Remember back when I got my old job? At the peak of the Great Recession? Well while searching for employment, I had stumbled across a totally un-famous book at the 2nd hand book store called… “Break the Rules” (2001) by William Cohen. If you can get a copy, it is priceless. I followed the instructions that clever man set out and – Basta! – I got my job. Basically, the book teaches you how to be your own headhunter.
The deeper thought behind the book is what is so inspiring to me for life in general. If you really want something, don’t expect to get it if you stay within the system thereby avoiding risks.
Steve Jobs tripped on LSD and then started a company. Gates and Zuckerberg blew off Harvard. Everyone cites these examples but I prefer to highlight one of my real inspirations, Vincent Moon. He travels the world with his camera, shooting documentaries of local folklores, sacred music and religious rituals. All of his work is released for free without copyright. He lives from strangers giving him a place to stay for free, feeding him a meal and cash donations. Although he went to film school, Moon didn’t get a job slaving away as an assistant or film mucker for years and years waiting for his chance. He just broke the rules and made it happen. Oh yeah, he’s also since shot films for REM, The National, etc…
You could also look to Frederick Wiseman. He came to documentary filmmaking after first being trained as a lawyer and teaching at Boston University.
I don’t believe that any of these people chose to disregard the rules just for the sake of being obstructionist. They just didn’t see how staying within the system would lead them to fulfilling their dreams in the way they imaged.
What are you passionate about? Follow that passion and be creative. Be a risk taker in chasing that dream down. All the risks I’ve taken in life have ended up leading to more joy and self confidence than what I started out with. I risked moving to Germany and later worked in the German parliament. I quit first my job without a prospect in sight only to get a much higher paying job a few months later. Break the Rules boosted my confidence further to try out unconventional solutions in solving business problems (included here getting a job). Following the book’s philosophy also helped me land the job at XYZ at an annual salary of $ 170,000 + benefits + stock options.
What the book DOESN’T say is how to break the rules and survive working in a corporate environment. While I got the fancy job at XYZ, it turned out I would have to do things the “corporate way” if I wanted to stay on (next blogpost).
I didn’t.
P.S. Break the Rules argues to never send a resume or references – if at all possible. All it does is give your prospective employer information to veto you out of a job. Perhaps they don’t like your university or your hometown. Perhaps they have a predisposition against something else you proactively send to them. I never sent XYZ or the Cleveland-based firm a resume or even references and I still got the 6-figure jobs. I swear on “Break the Rules”.
From Bergen, Norway, I flew with my bike to Amsterdam and rode southwards to the Dutch city of Eindhoven, home of XYZ. I signed a contract to become their new executive Vice President External Affairs.
What happened to traveling? What happened to “people are more important”?
I thought a lot about the job offer during the last few weeks of my bicycle trip. Starting a new job didn’t mean I had to give up my North Cape goals or even to re-priortize them. It would require a smarter work-life balance…
My two future bosses (who reported to the CEO), Mr. CTO and Mr. General Council, both promised me total entreprenural-styled control. They wanted me to completely build the PR and lobby teams, even if it would cost the company heavily in restructuring fees. One of the major goals was to save jobs in Eindhoven, rather than them being shifted overseas to Asia. I was very clear to them: I am not a “corporate” person. I don’t do baloney. I do things differently, but I will get you results.
Now I was in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, to sign the contract. I said to them, “Look out the window”. I’d set up my tent to dry outside the corporate headquarters, in view of Mr. General Council’s office.
Let’s be clear, dear Reader, anyone who has the gonads to arrive at their job interview in hiking gear & later set up their tent outside the boss’s office… that person is guaranteed to be an “out-of-the-box” thinker. I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or provocative. I was simply trying to be transparent. I was doing my best to let the real me shine through. Besides, they had already met me in my suit a few times (and I didn’t even own one at this point in time) so I didn’t see a need to put on a show. This is one conviction I had won from from my voyage to the Nordkapp. Be yourself.
I felt the job was a unique opportunity. How many “carte blanche” opportunities to completely overhaul an entire department does one get in a career? I’d also get to fulfill a few of my new goals: to work in a new country and learn a new language. I’d also promised myself that in the future I would only work for and with people I felt were honest, open and genuine. I thought I had met two such people in Mr. CTO and Mr. General Council. In fact, during my job interview Mr. General Council had put his foot up on the table, obviously feeling pretty relaxed. At the time I thought, this person is obviously not afraid to be themselves.
So I signed the contract and took the job…. but not before negotiating one more month of vacation.
Next stop: Marseille, France!
OXLAEY