The 10-Year Career Rule
Hey friends,
There’s a thought that strikes my mind whenever I’m in a slump, whether that be a productivity, content, or growth slump. It’s always this thought about whether the thing that I’m currently pursuing is the wrong thing and whether perhaps I’d see more ‘momentum’ or ‘success’ in another pursuit.
Nowadays, I just remind myself of the 10-Year Career Rule in these moments.
It’s a mental model that has helped me deal with competing interests and the fear of opportunity costs. Let me explain.
For me broadly speaking, I have three main career ambitions: (1) to become a well-accomplished consultant doctor or surgeon, (2) to create value and content online reaching a medium-large audience, and (3) to found a successful startup valued at $1bn USD. I think many will read this and call me crazy or overly ambitious, but that’s the kind of guy I am. I think individually those are three reasonable goals to have in life (okay maybe not $1bn USD) but simultaneously the three seem impossible (for me at least).
This is where the 10-Year Career Rule provides the best school of thought in my humble opinion. If we consider our life in 10-year segments and focus on one career for 10-years at a time, then we can probably have multiple successful careers in our lifetime. In the times when we want to switch careers, 10-years should hopefully provide enough time to learn, progress, and enter a stable position in a career for us to outsource components and thus free ourselves from the day-to-day duties. For example, a startup founder may choose to hire a capable team and employ a COO to oversee the day-to-day work whilst pursuing a new career ambition.
Now an important caveat being not every career offers the same possibility, for example, it would be impossible for me to call quits on medicine for the next decade whilst I focus on my personal brand. But, I’m confident that generally speaking many career ambitions can be accomplished using the 10-Year Career Rule.
Here’s how I’ve considered it. I have a pillar career that is being a doctor and this will require my lifelong devotion and time commitment. But, my remaining two ambitions can be accomplished alongside medicine as long as I only do one at a time. I’m choosing my personal brand first with the aim of building a self-sustainable process that requires less of my active involvement. This may involve building a team. Then, I hope to use the leverage/audience I’ll have built to pursue my startup endeavours, all whilst making medicine a part-time thing long-term.
This is how I plan on becoming a generalist over time and this is how I now think about competing interests and opportunity costs when it comes to careers, how about you?
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This Week’s Recommendation 🚀
Documentary 📝 — The Dark World of New Age Gurus (Documentary)
I just finished watching the second and final part of James Jani’s documentary-style investigation into the world of fake gurus. It’s a pretty eye-opening account of the pseudoscience that surrounds the law of attraction. I think this is a must-watch for anyone out there reading/consuming self-help books and content online.
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