BE SO GOOD THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOU
When comedian Steve Martin was quizzed about why he was successful in his career, he immediately replied: “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” which flies in the face of conventional wisdom by suggesting that it should be a person’s talent and skill – and not necessarily their passion – that determines their career path. Trying to find what drives us instead of focusing on areas in which we naturally excel may be ultimately harmful and frustrating to job seekers. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in his famous Stanford University commencement speech, urges idealistic grads to chase their dreams or passion, which is contrary to Steve Martin, who believes that one’s career success depends on finding out what one does well and where one has built up his ‘career capital,’ and then put all of one’s efforts in that direction. But if you look at what Jobs did: he didn’t follow his passion for zen Buddhism. If Jobs had followed his love, he would have become a teacher in a zen monastery. Instead, the Apple founder had several stops and starts — including famously dropping out of Reed College and travelling to India in search of enlightenment. Steve Martins cautions against taking ‘follow your passion’ as the lesson from Job’s life — he points out that the vast majority of careers have equally odd stops and starts and that ‘follow your passion’ is reductive and quite useless as a guiding principle.
In his new career strategy book , “So Good They Can’t Ignore You”, Cal Newport asserts that the passion hypothesis is forcing this decline in job satisfaction. If you believe you should follow your passion and then by finding a job that conforms to that passion, you’re setting yourself up for failure. People with unrealistic expectations about passions in their career will discover themselves chronically job hopping and continually discontented with whatever job they have.
Newport thinks the passion hypothesis is also fundamentally blemished for several other reasons. The first reason is that passion is rare. In 2002, a study team led by Canadian psychologist Robert J. Vallerand distributed a comprehensive questionnaire to a group of 539 Canadian university students. They found that most of them had hobby-related passions like cricket, hockey, video games etc., not career passions. Newport argues that this is suggestive that you can’t follow a passion for your career if you don’t have job-related passions to pursue.
The second reason the passion hypothesis is poor advice is that passion takes time to build. For instance, Amy Wrzesniewski conducted a study of college administrative assistants. Wrzesniewski discovered that the strongest predictor of an assistant calling upon her work as a calling was the number of years spent on the employment. In other words: the more experience the assistant had, the more probable they would love their work.
In today’s world, you must make noise if you want to get heard. You can no longer wait for the right opportunity or perfect moment to present yourself. You must take the bull by its horns and find your ways of introducing yourself. People in this world succeed not because they’re the smartest or most skilled but because they are so good at becoming so good at what they do that people can’t help but notice them. We call these people “stand out” professionals, and one of their secrets is learning how to be so good that people can’t ignore them despite all the noise around them. Here are some ways to be so good that people can’t ignore you.
Commit to constant improvement and learning
Successful people are always searching for new ways to improve themselves and their skills. The best and most successful people in the world are constantly finding new ways to grow and improve their skills, even if they’ve been doing their job for decades. If you commit to constant improvement and learning, you’ll never settle for your current skill level. You’ll constantly look for new ways to better yourself, your expertise, and your skills. This continuous improvement will make you stand out from the crowd.
Network like crazy
There’s no better way to get your name out there than networking. Whether attending or hosting a networking event, broadcasting your contact information, or finding ways to get involved in your industry’s social media groups, getting your name out there in the world can be a very effective way of getting noticed. Networking is all about connecting with people who have a common interest as you. You’ll have access to potential mentors, collaborators, and lifelong connections through networking. You’ll also have access to individuals in positions to hire you, promote you, and give you a leg up in your career.
Develop a signature skill
One of the easiest ways to make yourself stand out amongst your peers is by developing a signature skill. That doesn’t necessarily mean you must become a skilful surgeon or an elite athlete, which means that you need to find out what you’re good at, what you have a particular talent for, or what you love doing so much that you can’t help but dive headfirst into it. This signature skill can be anything from cooking to designing to creating music. The key here is that you’re so incredibly good at it that people can’t ignore you. Calport encourages people to develop a “craftsman mindset. The craftsman mindset is that you should concentrate on gaining rare and valuable skills since this is what guides to good career outcomes.
Show up—a lot
The best way to stand out is to show up—a lot. You need to engage with your industry in every way possible. It would be best if you could attend industry events, conferences, and seminars. It means you must make it your business to be at the forefront of your industry and make yourself accessible to everyone you meet. It means that you need to make it such that people will be sorry if they don’t get to know you and your work.
Be proud of who you are and what you have to offer
One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from the rest of your industry is to be proud of who you are and what you offer. It’s easy to get wrapped up in what everyone else is doing and trying to be just like them. It’s easy to fall into the trap of comparing yourself to others and becoming a loser which is a surefire way to make yourself unappealing to people and make them want to ignore you and your work. Instead, learn to be proud of who you are and what you have to offer. Be proud of your background, your heritage, and your upbringing. Be proud of your struggles and your journey. Be proud of the fact that you have something to offer the world.
Give people something to talk about
If you want to make yourself stand out amongst your peers, give people something to talk about yourself. That means that you need to be creative in everything you do. You need to create such a memorable experience or product that people can’t help but want to talk about it. You need to be so creative in everything you do that it leaves a lasting impression on your audience. You need to be so creative and original that it becomes something that people will talk about long after you’ve gone.
Conclusion
For an employee, being good at their job is one of the essential qualities of an employee. You won’t be employed for long if you’re not a good worker. However, being a good worker doesn’t always mean that you’ll succeed in your career. While being a good worker is crucial to staying employed and keeping managers happy, it doesn’t have much impact on whether or not people will want to work with you again after they leave your company. To get people to want to work with you again, you need to focus on becoming so good they can’t ignore you. If you’re reading this article and thinking, ‘Who would ever ignore Steve? He is very famous indeed. We’ve got some excellent news for you! It means that becoming so good they can’t ignore you isn’t as hard as it sounds.
The same strategies for making your company or enterprise so suitable that your customers or clients can’t ignore your company’s products. Keeping an eye on the competition is an integral part of any business. It’s even more critical in a crowded industry, where the attention of potential customers is at the highest premium. The key to staying ahead of your competitors is to understand their business and find ways to set yours apart from theirs. You should position your company as being distinct from your direct competitors. If you follow such strategies, your company will rise above the noise of the crowded marketplace and become something special to your target audience.
Making yourself stand out amongst your peers is one of the best ways to get noticed and hired in a competitive industry. It would be best if you made yourself known amongst your peers and industry leaders. You can do this in several ways, including committing to constant improvement, networking like crazy, and developing a signature skill. You can make yourself stand out in many ways, but they all begin with a commitment to excellence in everything you do.
Dr. K.Jayanth Murali is an IPS Officer belonging to 1991 batch. He is borne on Tamil Nadu cadre. He lives with his family in Chennai, India. He is currently serving the Government of Tamil Nadu as Director General of Police, Idol Wing CID, Chennai.