So good they can’t ignore you — how craftsmanship builds great careers

How do you build a career you love?

How do you make it impactful, long-lived, and fulfilling?

How do you get paid to do what you love?

As someone who is shifting into design, I am interested in understanding what makes a person great at what they do — what strategies, paradigms, and habits have made them prolific and highly demanded. I was also curious about compounding effects, or instances when one’s investment continues to grow and stack up to produce exponential results, in effort to find ways to optimize time, energy, and effort. To find these answers, I took to studying the Greats of various fields to draw insights that could apply to my life.

One area I found inspiration was the NBA — looking at stars like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Michael Jordan. I looked at designers like Hiroki Asai, Paula Scher, and Steve Jobs; artists like Frank Ocean, SZA, and Alicia Keys; and many others. But it wasn’t until reading So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport when I was able to draw conclusions of what separates good from great.

As a designer, I want to work on interesting problems, with passionate people, and in a company that appreciates my talents through opportunities and compensation. When I began my job search, I felt tied to these qualifications as I knew I had strong transferable experience that was missing from my peers. I thought my people skills, enthusiasm, and mission-driven ambitions would compensate for my lack of experience, but this proved foolish when my applications weren’t receiving traction.

Your control over outcomes are slim when you have little to no “career capital”, or valuable previous experience. You may feel that you deserve X, but the job market thinks otherwise. This humbling realization demonstrates the limitations of passion in moments of conflict, as it can be short-lived.

My passion for design died under the pressure of job search creating feelings of boredom and demotivation. This scared me as it signaled that I was losing my edge, forgetting why I chose design in the first place. It was clear that I had no career capital, therefore my yearn for control is not immediately attainable until I obtain that leverage.