“The Best Way Out is Always Through.”
The great Robert Frost says this in his poem ‘A Servant to Servants.’ The line is a monologue from a woman who is deeply lonely and longs for more comfort and security than her life provides. At one part, she mentions that ‘the best way out is always through,’ which is her counsel to seek discomfort to find growth and meaning to her life.
I recently made a career pivot in a major way. I turned down an offer to become a COO at an extremely high growth technology company and instead opted to pursue a commercial role running Sales for my current company. Few understand why I made this decision (after all, my long term goal was to become a COO). My mantra, however, is to seek discomfort which ultimately drives personal growth. I once watched a COO at a previous company who was incapable of understanding customer issues. He operated with a tight P&L mindset and drove extreme organizational efficiencies, but was unable to relate to the people who were paying his bills. This eventually led to his exit and I said to myself that I’d never become that way. I have since been obsessed with going out of my way to find the right commercial role.
The truth is that there’s not a single day that goes by in my new role where I’m not wildly uncomfortable. At the end of each day I am left reflecting on new learnings and I feel like I am exercising another an atrophied muscle that is starting to harden. It’s cool (and daunting). Will I get fired? Maybe. Will I learn a ton? Absolutely. I have frequently taken the path less traveled and will likely continue in this direction. It may be non-sensical, its certainly maddening to my family and friends, but it keeps me honest and humble. I have realized that the best thing I can do, no matter what stage of career I am in, is remain hungry for knowledge and growth.
This quote means to create your own problems, but then turn them into your own opportunities.
Run at your uncertainties and tackle them, don’t hide from them.
Seek change to drive growth.
Drive growth to find opportunity.
Seize opportunity to breed creativity.
Elicit empathy by acknowledging your gaps.
Create value in whatever you do, but you’ll create far more value if you’re doing something you didn’t know how to do before with a refined perspective.
