Career ADD, I guess
What I'm Up To (Connecting), What I Reflected On (Career ADD), and What's Occupying My Mind (Ghost Writing) - all part of Allen's Friday Flights
Hello - it’s time for Friday Flights!
These are a flight of personal updates from me and it’ll be centered around what I’m up to, what I reflected on, and what book (or even thing) occupies my mind. I’m that guy who orders samplers all the damn time.
Ciao!
Allen
Inside:
What I’m up to
What I reflected on
What thing occupies my mind
What I’m Up To
TL;DR: Actively expanding and deepening the thoughts I hear from the people I directly know.
The Things:
Jurassic World Dominion is one of the worse movies I’ve ever seen.
Irvine Grill is one of the best Persian restaurants you’ve never heard of.
Trader Joes Patio Chips are the most dangerously delicious chips you’ve also never noticed.
In the last week alone, I got to connect with 13 people. 7 of them were in person, independently. Socially, philosophically, lifely, and businessly. Loved it. But I’m introverted, so I’m now going to hermit for the next week. bye.
Zion Market had a price error on Cuttlefish Sashimi ($14) and marking it as shrimp ($2). So logically I bought the entire stock out (5 packets), and then bought way too many strawberries ($1 a pound). Was a good haul.
Broke $2k in lifetime Product Sales on the Ecommerce project I have.
Beat Deserts of Kharak game again (I’m a Homeworld nerd, as sparse as their content is).
I put out a LinkedIn ask to meet more Web3/Crypto/Blockchain accounting professionals and I’ve never been so bombarded in my life. <3
My Career Coaching Offering, Action Passion, is currently being rolled out to everyone who signed up on the whitelist. <3.
Someone I know (and gave a helping hand, though he did 99% of the work) doubled their salary and broke 6 figures. Fuck yeah. That’s what it’s about. Onward to the next person!
What I Reflected On
TL;DR: It’s pretty hard to explain all the random things I’ve done on paper.
Career ADD, I guess
When I was going through my career at EY, I had trouble seeing what would be possible for me. A lot of it was rooted in not being able to appreciate what I have done, or vocalize what I have done in a way that wasn’t rambling.
It took me a few years in to be comfortable articulating what I do in a way that wasn’t strictly role based. I figured out the best way to present self, but that was in the context of one consistent employer.
I’ve since left and have started doing very random things, I’m finding myself struggling to explain all the things I have done, am doing, and wanting to do next.
At least in a way that I could have a shit eating grin when I think about it.
So I drew a picture in powerpoint.
See this?
This my career story so far.
I reflected on the phrase “You have to collect the dots, before you can connect the dots”. I first heard the phrase from Nora Ali. She was giving a virtual talk to the Morning Brew Accelerator program (now known as Business Essentials Learning).
I collected a lot of dots.
For the outsider looking in, it looks like “this guy isn’t focused” and “he’s doing 2 things at the same time”. On paper, or in one workplace, they would be right. Perhaps maybe I could “Go farther” had I gone all in one for 10 years.
But you don’t have to go that deep with me to know that my brain simply doesn’t work that way. As part of my trait of life-long learning, I learn by doing different things. So I do different things, to learn them.
Why?
I’m a believer in having range (this is a referral code to a book), because the counter-idea of “you need to do something for 10,000 hours” both terrifies, and bores the heck, out of me.
Why?
Because innately, I don’t believe specializing in any one thing wins in the long-term. (Unless that one thing, is already a broad thing on its own).
Why?
I like cross pollinating, and connecting the dots differently. I like visiting something I’ve already done and doing it differently. I like creating new things.
Why?
The more things I do, the more possibilities I can see to be reasonable and reachable. The more possibilities I see, the more optimistic I am, and grateful to be able to see.
Why?
I like being the wizard that shows the way because there’s something satisfying about being able to pull all the experiences I’ve ever had, and then showing someone a possible path they could take. Apparently, that’s called wisdom. It’s my way of helping another, especially through ambiguity, uncertainty, and pioneering-like environments.
What’s next?
I can’t answer where I’m going to be in the next 5 years, because 5 years ago me got it wildly incorrect. I’ve been doing things I like, all along. So now I’m taking it a month at a time, and absolving myself of any possible choices that could have been.
A lot can happen in 4 months. 1 year. 3 years.
Most of it will be unpredictable.
Many of it, indescribable.
A lot of it, unimaginable.
You’ll be fine. Just get ready for a ride of a lifetime.
I hope this is enough to convince younger me that all the seemingly random things I do are all valid and valuable things to be doing. The reality is, all the things I have done, they lied dormant until the right conditions sparked life for those things to flourish.
Life is but a bunch of dots that happen, and I get to give meaning to the in between, and to the dot itself. I get to revisit, and redefine, what an experience means.
p.s. it’s incredibly hard to write this on a resume.
p.s.s. Self-acceptance of yourself today, and letting go the futures you could have been, well that’s the topic for another disccussion.
What thing occupies my mind
TL;DR: This week Crypto crashed.
Crypto Winter
I currently make a living off Web3 / Crypto / Blockchain jobs and projects, so this is great timing for crypto crash. It was bad enough that I sunsetted my Crypto Mining operations since cost completely exceeds revenue.
Am I in danger?
Probably.
I’m taking it month by month while trying out new things.
The many founders I work with are really feeling it now, but they were all collectively smart in pooling reserves and conforming to predictable and managable costs.
If you told one year ago me I would be doing what I am doing now, I would say hot damn. There is something exhilirating about being where I am today.
I get to hear and participate in real discussions on the future of a business as a result of an economic downturn. How cool is that?