Maximize Your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take Bold Risks & Build an Incredible Career (99U Book 2)

by Jocelyn K. Glei

“What way of working and living will nurture my passion?”

we should begin by systematically developing rare and valuable skills.

4. Take intelligent risks. Risk tends to get a bad rap. But it’s not the enemy. Entrepreneurs proactively yet prudently take on intelligent risk. Because the flip side of every opportunity is risk, if you’re not taking risks, you’re not finding the breakout opportunities you’re looking for. In your career, good entrepreneurial risks include taking on side projects on nights and weekends, embarking on international travel, asking your boss for extra work, and applying for jobs that you don’t think you’re fully qualified for.

set aside one uninterrupted period of, say, sixty minutes each working day to build the skill you’ve chosen, preferably first thing in the morning. As your capacity for focus grows stronger over time, add fifteen minutes, and then another fifteen minutes, until you reach ninety.

the heart of social contracting is spending time up front talking about the How—the relationship and how we’ll work together—rather than being seduced by the What, the excitement and urgency of the content, what needs to be sorted out and solved.

Don’t be too proud to listen to others. Ask a lot of questions and pay attention to the answers, not out of politeness but out of respect for their expertise and the knowledge that you can achieve more together than alone. Give them credit and praise for their contributions.

Rather than see his fate as linked to forces outside his control, Manning demonstrates a different view—through hard work, he can make the decision a success. This sense of agency gives him a powerful asset to drive the outcome he wants. If he fails, it will be in spite of his absolute best efforts to succeed.

All of our paths are riddled with small and enormous failures. The key is being able to see these experiences as experiments that yield valuable data and to learn what to do differently next time.