The (not so) secret ingredient for a successful career (and life)
In a time dominated by the 3Cs – chaos, complexity and contradictions – Dan Beaumont, managing partner of The Royals, argues the greatest character trait for a successful career is resilience.
As the old saying goes, there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. However, according to a study of our current era by the University of Washington, we live in Post Normal Times. PNT is a description of the rapidly changing nature of our world, that is certain to be dominated by the 3Cs – chaos, complexity and contradictions. Our world and everything in it is moving so much faster than ever before, but it will never move so slowly again. Is that scary or exhilarating?
Regardless of how ambitious and driven you are, you’ll be impacted by the 3Cs in varying degrees, which will no doubt produce a certain amount of change and challenge in your life. Being able to cope with setbacks, failure and adversity will reduce stress and give you a greater sense of control when, let’s face it, so much is out of our control in our industry.
And the secret lies here: separating the elements we can control from the things we can’t – weather, traffic, trains running on time, the housing market, election results, the budget and timeline, clients resigning, who else is pitching, winning awards, campaigns other agencies make, anonymous negative comments.
Our working lives and our personal lives are merging. We’re seeking balance between the two, and more understanding from each that the other exists. I’ve argued previously that work/life balance (and more specifically gender equality) will come when we realise that men and women are in this together, but my point now is that we won’t be able to successfully navigate our careers, and lives, if we’re trying to control things that either won’t change or can’t be changed by us.
Good points, but you forgot to mention that sleep is fast becoming recognised as extremely important to mental and physical health. Stress, and being “always on” wreak havoc in this area. The one thing you *must* control is sleep, and you must be resilient about it 🙂 Another point; one can’t control one’s chronological age. So how does one resilience-ify oneself in the face of an employment market that sees anyone over some arbitrary number as suddenly being “past it” and all-of-a-sudden losing all their knowledge? This has also been written about by mothers trying to re-enter the workforce after only one year away (and having to take massive pay cuts or junior roles). Resilience is fine, but sometimes social f***wittetry needs to be called out (reliliently). And who better than the hallowed advertising industry to try to move the zeitgeist for the better? Come on PR and Advertising industry: get together for a worthwhile cause just for once! (but I know you won’t)
Diversity goes beyond gender and white straight me always miss this! Gay and race need to be mentioned in the diversity commentary.
Absolutely yes to the last two pars, thanks for sharing.