In the book, ‘Forever Employable’, Jeff Gothelf provides some valuable and actionable steps for ‘future-proofing’ your career. The approach has a lot synergies with the concept of antifragility.
Jeff relates how he woke up “scared shitless” on his 35th birthday. What he describes is essentially a hyper-fragile lifestyle – a lifestyle that many are not only living but also aspiring to.
On that morning, Jeff suddenly realised:
- He had spent his life working his way up the corporate ladder
- In corporate hierarchies, there’s not much space at the top of the pyramid. Increasingly fewer jobs available to him (not more!).
- His salary was high (i.e. he was expensive) whilst more people were entering the market who were cheaper, just as good and in some cases actually better.
- He had an expensive lifestyle with dependents
- His income and sustenance was the mercy of one employer (fragility!)
Instead of being future proofed, he was ‘future-screwed’ – a suitable term for having fragility AND asymmetric downside. Akin to a Turkey, one morning, figuring out what Christmas meant for him, and realising that it’s already mid-December!
Jeff decided to do something about it.
Decision:
His objective was to:
“Make work find me”
He decided to put his skin in the game and make himself antifragile.
Some of his recommendations are all in line with antifargility
- Constantly testing your hypotheses: increasing the exposure to small reversible mistakes.
- Taking small bets: Learning with as little risk and investment as possible.
- Increasing upside: Increasing the visibility of your work and the value you bring.
The upside here is lucrative work finding its way to you. And becoming increasingly agile and antifragile along the way.