From afdc04e0055f68b831e591f94d978b998d8ef2b5 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael Chan Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2020 14:56:52 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] add post: do what others won't --- chan.dev/content/posts/do-what-others-wont.md | 30 +++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+) create mode 100644 chan.dev/content/posts/do-what-others-wont.md diff --git a/chan.dev/content/posts/do-what-others-wont.md b/chan.dev/content/posts/do-what-others-wont.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4c865b0c --- /dev/null +++ b/chan.dev/content/posts/do-what-others-wont.md @@ -0,0 +1,30 @@ +--- +title: Do What Others Won't +date: 2020-01-22 +--- + +When I was interviewing contractors to refinish the wood floors of my 70 year old house, they told me: +"This job is too dangerous. +Here's a card for the only guy crazy enough to do it." +I hired that guy and paid him twice as much as the others estimated. + +When I was changing careers, I followed that contractor's lead: +Do what others won't. + +"Shit work" is low-stakes way to showcase your dependability. +If things go well, you're a savior. +If things go sideways, well, you were the last hope anyway. + +Career capital is measured in dependability. +It takes a lifetime to be trusted with work everyone wants. +But it only takes a few wins to be trusted with work nobody wants. + +In my career, that leverage was CSS. +Nobody wanted to own CSS in 2010. +By becoming dependable, in a job nobody wanted, it was only a few months before I was in planning meetings with developers 10 years my senior. + +There's always work to be found "beneath" others. +If you do your job right, you won't be "beneath" anyone for long. + +🤴 chan +(Proverbs 22:29)[https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+22:29&version=ESV]