Our parents generation had the luxury of being able to climb the corporate ladder and succeed through hard work and tenacity. They were able to intern for that record exec, be an assistant to agent and/or put in 5 years at a company and eventually get promoted or utilize those connections. The landscape for us has changed two fold.
Corporate advancement is a game of shoots and ladders. Prior to millennials entering into the workforce there were mainly ladders, now our ladders have missing rungs and our journey is characterized by an endless climb with multiple career shifts. The average millennial stays in a corporate position for only 3 years. In addition to the advancement bottlenecks the dollar is worth significantly less, so for the same amount of work in major cities like LA, New York and San Francisco, you still may not be able to support yourself. Stay with me though, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
As someone who moved to LA to further pursue entrepreneurship, I was in for a rude awakening on how difficult it would be to build quality connections with other business professionals and the roadblocks to monetization.
A successful tv producer friend of mine remarked how the entertainment industry has changed since his uncle, an Emmy award-winning producer came into the game, "He was able to start out in various different local networks, moved over to producing for Larry King and eventually got his big break on syndicated show, Judge Judy. It's the dichotomy between finding and developing talent vs. working your way up through title bumps.”
Unlike his uncle, Nolan had to build his career by going from a PA to Sr. Story producer through humility, strong work ethic and what we know as “networking”. The only problem is millennial networking is like fast fashion, low quality, hard to trust, and let’s just say that what you put in is not necessarily what you get out.
Not to say it’s all bad, hard work definitely still pays off but the game has changed. I’ve discovered you have to move differently in this business landscape to achieve greatness. Below are the steps I’ve best identified on how to do just that:
1. Develop genuine connections
Do not simply network to gain some sort of connection or to meet “the plug.” surround yourself with hungry, driven, innovative thinkers who, at no matter what stage you are at in life, will support, invest and advise on your ideas.
I'm starting to learn the seeds you plant early on are what pay off. Whether that’s an impression you made on someone because of a good deed you did for them or simply showing colleagues your recognize their humanity.
As millennials we have a unique struggle and it’s important to empower and educate each other as much as possible along the way. We are all trying to figure it out and mentorship goes a long way. I find the most joy in watching my team “get it. ” teaching someone to memorize “best practices” is empty but showing them how to strategize, critically think and take risks that pay off is beyond rewarding because it shows them things they didn’t even know they were capable of.
2. You can’t market to the whole world
this goes for products services, ideas and careers. Being a jack of all trades but a master of none is not something to brag about in my opinion. In marketing you have to have your champion product and your core customer. The same goes for life, invest your time in discovering your passions and then turn that into your career.
3. Be an infinite learner
The saying “be humble” isn’t just a Kendrick Lamar lyric, it’s the essence of what it takes to be successful. Become self aware enough to know that all of our knowledge is limited to our experience. I pride myself on being an infinite learner, which means always doing by best to seek understanding of myself and others while challenging myself to learn each day, whether that’s teaching someone on my team how to troubleshoot a FB pixel for a client website or how establishing trust with someone you do not automatically mesh with.
Ultimately as we navigate our version of the business world, we have to be careful to fall into the pitfalls of comparison, the need to be a millionaire by 30 and the nagging sense to always be doing more.