📚 So Good They Can't Ignore You

I have read twice this book from ¹,² Cal Newport, a book that I’ve specially enjoyed:

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Although the title already gave clues as to where things were going, there are serveral conclusions that I didn’t see coming so clearly, but once I processed the information, they make perfect sense. Al least for me, the thesis that Cal defends is convincing.

# Follow your passion?

The book analyzes the well-known slogan “Follow your passion”. Two ideas that question it:

1. Pursuing one’s passion is more complicated than it seems.
2. There are no compelling reasons to support that following your passion works:
   • first, because most people don’t have many passions;
   • second, because making that a professional career and an interest that we have (= passion?) go hand in hand does not guarantee a successful career, nor that we will feel fulfilled with it.

# The four rules

Cal sets out four rules, which I quote below:

1. Do not pursue your passion.
2. Do it so well that they can’t ignore you.
   • Become a craftsman of whatever you want to do.
   • Ten perfectamente claro qué tipo de capital de conocimiento necesitas y en qué nivel se considera que se es suficientemente bueno, en aquello a lo que quieras dedicarte.
   • Y, para mí muy importante también, debes ser paciente.
     • Un ejemplo que me viene a la mente: con un cursito de pocas horas y escaso desempeño práctico en algo, no vas a ser un super crack en el tema. Tenlo en cuenta.
3. Toma el control de tu carrera.
   • No te dejes llevar, por ejemplo, por ascensos que suenan muy bien pero que acaban conduciéndote por caminos por los que no querías transitar.
     • Seguro que todos conocemos a personas que, tras dar un “salto profesional”, como por ejemplo dejar de desempeñar labores técnicas y pasar a realizar únicamente tareas de gestión, acabaron frustradas e insatisfechas con sus vidas, precisamente porque dejaron de dedicarse a lo que realmente les motivaba.
4. Piensa en pequeño pero actúa a lo grande.
   • También conocida como la importancia de la misión.

Otras ideas que subraya el autor:

• Los detalles específicos de lo que hacemos son menos importantes de lo que a priori podemos pensar.
• Es clave ser realmente bueno en algo y desarrollar habilidades raras y muy cotizadas.
• Newport introduce el concepto de capital de carrera:
  • cuenta el caso de una persona que tenía un capital de carrera importante en marketing pero que decidió dar un giro radical hacia el mundo del yoga, sin tener muy en cuenta lo que perdía de su capital de carrera y lo que le faltaba en esa nueva profesión. Esas decisiones ocasionaron que sus expectativas no se cumplieran y le llevó a padecer apuros económicos.

# The case of Steve Jobs

El caso más conocido que describe es el de Steve Jobs, cofundador de Apple, del que sugiere que mejor “hagamos lo que él hizo y no lo que dijo”, en referencia a una conocida charla suya. En sus comienzos en la universidad, Jobs no tenía muy claro a qué dedicarse. Sin embargo, en cuanto se le presentó una oportunidad de negocio, se involucró de lleno y acabó desarrollando una carrera de grandes éxitos (y algún sonado fracaso), lo que le convirtió en uno de los gurús tecnológicos de nuestro tiempo.

# The Snowball Effect

Otra idea importante que deja el libro:

• si uno trabaja durante tiempo para ser cada vez mejor en algo, ello desencadena un efecto bola de nieve o snowball effect: a medida que vamos ganando habilidad en algo y mejoramos nuestras skills, nuestra pasión por ello también crece.

El libro de Newport se publicó en 2012, año en el que también tuvo lugar la charla que dio a empleados de Google, cuyo vídeo dejo a continuación.

Por cierto, el título está sacado de una frase del actor norteamericano Steve Martin (video). Si no conoces nada acerca de Steve Martin, te sugiero que le des una lectura al link anterior y te toparás con un tipo con una vida muy interesante.

Cal lays out four rules, which I quote below:

Don’t chase your passion. Why? Because “calling” is rare, it takes a lot of time, and ultimately “passion” comes from skill. In other words, the more skilled or better you are at something, the easier it is for that something to become your passion. Do it so well that they can’t ignore you. Become a craftsman of whatever you want to do. Be perfectly clear about what kind of knowledge capital you need and at what level you are considered good enough at whatever you want to do. And, very important to me as well, you must be patient. An example that comes to mind: with a short course and little practical experience in something, you are not going to be a super-star in the subject. Keep that in mind. Take control of your career. Don’t be carried away, for example, by promotions that sound great but end up leading you down paths you didn’t want to take. We all know people who, after taking a “career leap”, such as from technical work to management, ended up frustrated and dissatisfied with their lives, precisely because they stopped doing what really motivated them. Think small but act big. Also known as the importance of the mission. Other ideas that the author highlights:

The specific details of what we do are less important than we might think at first. It is key to be really good at something and develop rare and highly sought-after skills. Newport introduces the concept of career capital: He tells the case of a person who had significant career capital in marketing but decided to make a radical turn towards the world of yoga, without taking into account what he was losing from his career capital and what he was missing in this new profession. These decisions caused his expectations to not be met and led him to financial difficulties.

The case of Steve Jobs

The most famous case he describes is that of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, of whom he suggests that we should “do what he did and not what he said,” in reference to a famous speech he gave. At the beginning of his university career, Jobs was not very clear about what he wanted to do. However, as soon as a business opportunity presented itself, he got fully involved and ended up developing a career of great success (and some resounding failures), which made him one of the technological gurus of our time.

The snowball effect

Another important idea that the book leaves behind:

if one works for a long time to become better and better at something, this triggers a snowball effect: as we gain skill in something and improve our skills, our passion for it also grows. Newport’s book was published in 2012, the same year that he also gave a talk to Google employees, the video of which is below.

By the way, the title is taken from a quote by American actor Steve Martin (video). If you don’t know anything about Steve Martin, I suggest you read the link above and you’ll come across a guy with a very interesting life.

Footnotes

1. English version: Newport, C. (2012). So good they can’t ignore you : why skills trump passion in the quest for work you love. Piatkus. ↩

2. Spanish version: Newport, C. (2017). Hazlo tan bien que no puedan ignorarte: por qué ser competente importa más que la pasión para alcanzar el trabajo de tus sueños (D. Pereda Sancho, Trans.). Asertos. ↩