Make Yourself Irreplaceable

So you don’t know what to do with your life. So you figured, somehow, that you would get out of high school, or university, and have a fairly clear vision for what the best step is in order to pursue the life that you’ve always wanted.

And… well… now, you don’t even know what life you want. So how the hell are you supposed to pursue it?

Well, to begin with, you have to reframe the context in which you’re dreaming. We have this notion that we will come right out of our schooling, enter into our career and stay there until retirement. This idea is rapidly changing. Our generation (millenials and younger) will now average 5 different careers throughout their working life. We get pulled in more directions and have more options than ever before. This seems like a great thing, and will even make you feel a little guilty for being less satisfied with your job, because after all, you chose it amongst a plethora of choices, what right do you have to be unsatisfied?!

Unfortunately, working against you has been the paradox of choice. This states that the more choices you have, the less satisfied you will be with the one that you make.

Does this mean that you have to let someone else choose for you and just ‘be happy with it’? Of course not. It means that once you make a choice, you should do your best not to revisit it for awhile, stick it out and see what a life might look like pursuing that career. If its not for you, so be it. Don’t expect to chase your passion and be happy as a result. Your passion is something you need to bring with you, not something you need to follow.

And whatever you do, do it fully. Don’t half-ass. The cream will rise to the top, everywhere you go, and the opportunities are everywhere. This is great news for you. It means that you have every chance to sample and try a whole variety of different life paths and then make the best choice possible. And don’t be too nervous, you can always change course down the road if it’s in your interest.

The key is to make yourself irreplaceable. Get a special set of skills, get life experience that others don’t. Travel the world, volunteer, learn a language or five, and really put some oomph into it. If you work hard, get your hands a little dirty and really show your grit in all aspects of your life, you’ll find that you quickly put together a resume that, by being so unique, can open almost any interviewers door.

Your motto, as you make your way through your 20’s trying to figure out what to do, should really be, ‘build a resume that makes people so intrigued that they have to meet you’… don’t try to beat everyone at the game they are all playing. They are all trying to build the perfect resume that the bosses are expecting. Build the one that catches the bosses off guard. Build the one that makes them reread it. Build the one that makes them picture what your life has been like. Build the one that makes them so damn curious that they’d kick themselves for not meeting you.

They are all working to be top of their class, get the best job placement, and the ‘right’ references. So go out, start a non-profit, spend hours volunteering in some far-flung country, speaking a different language, learning how to build houses and grow gardens, scraping your way from one country to the next. You will be absolutely amazed just how quickly you can amass experience after experience that you could never find back home. And this other world experience. That’s the stuff that cuts your character.

Furthermore, it will become it’s own filtering device. The bosses that value innovation, flexibility and novel ideas will be the ones that come looking for you. And those organizations? Those companies? They are the ones who just might be supple enough to shift with the changing winds and be the leaders of a better tomorrow.

You will automatically get the interviews that are worth taking. And the minute you walk in the door, you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand. So go out. Live a little. And build an expansive resume on your way.