what is your worst mistake professionally?
for me. i spent college studying for grades and 20s making money in a job I don't like, but never got to make the memories I should've with all my friends. I regret doing all of that
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- Focused solely on grades in colleges
- Thought Campus placements were ultimate goal
- Spent 3 years in a company with 5% increment (once), because it was comfortable
- Scared to ask even minimum budget while negotiating salary
- Overthinking every step, still not taking actions to correct or fuck up anything
- Major major regret - not taking risk of starting own. It also has to do with parenting, but lets not blame.
- Ran away from public sharing - speaking, athletics, all extracurricular activities for that matter. Kids grow up with zero confidence and looking fat & ugly. (I'm not fat shaming, some fat people look 🤌)
I'll add more, there will be more for sure 😂
- Not taking social media seriously, I was writing (witty one liners back in the day) but not something to pursue.
We follow this lifestyle because the alternate is worse for most Indians. Its easy to say follow your dreams when you have bills to pay every month end.
usually the people who advise to "follow the dreams" are rich and have no worry about money.
My worst mistake was to not have enough conviction. You need to bend reality to your will. Reality distortion is real and you can influence things.
Steve Jobs once said, “Everything around you that you call life was created by people who were no smarter than you.”
@salt - Not enough conviction was not your mistake. Its always easy to second guess sitting in an arm chair. Those were best decisions made based on info available at that time. If you are a middle class person, who had to get a job at 21 or end as a dependent on parents, fear of losing the job will take precedence over everything.
since you quote steve jobs - i read this somewhere - "every dead body on the top of everest was once a motivated climber. So calm down".
It's okay to calm down and rest but always keep moving and improve 1% everyday.
Hubris. Not the smartest, not the most privileged, but got some stellar opportunities that I was too short sighted to appreciate. Got cocky and took unreasonable risks (in hindsight!) Lost a good career, family along the way and at a ripe old age, am starting at the bottom of the pile. Regrets? Yes. A whole lot! Hope? Also yes, conservatively. But the one lesson learnt is that profession is but one aspect of this myriad-hued thing called life. The day it encroaches upon everything else, step back and realise that you are definitely doing something wrong.
Are you sure because the glorification of work as a means to be rich is a mainstream theology.
That's exactly what it is! A mainstream theology. Just ask any retiree about how they feel, especially those who have retired from powerful, even if average paying designations. Their entire life went in an inflated sense of importance, especially tied to their work. Suddenly, they find that it means nothing. And that the other aspects, they perennially ignored or disrespected, were all that mattered.
Ended up joining a large company way too early in my career. It was a dream company almost, but it slowed down my career in those two years and I realized that a large, comfortable company just isn't for me early in my career.
That said, it did give me the confidence that I can work at a great brand, so it was helpful that way.
Homesickness during my college days. I used to go to home every weekend. I think I should have stayed little more at the hostel :P
Last 2 years have been a shit show, I quit a job for a good opportunity in a start up unfortunately the opportunity didn't turn out so great in reality and impacted my health, I took a break and couldn't find a good role when I restarted my job hunt, a friend referred me to a service based company for a project. By the time I was boarded, the client opted out and now stuck again with very limited projects in my role 🥲
It is okay. You win some and lose some but not taking risks is the biggest risk.
Running after perfection. I still sometimes find myself longing for perfection and that really hinders my ability to appreciate the hard work I do. Like STOP beating yourself up. No one has it figured out. Go make some memories with your family/friends. Oh and please step out and randomly talk to people. (I'm just starting to realise how rewarding this can be)
Having 0 savings for the first 7 years of my career and not starting investing sooner. Now when I see my friends who started investing earlier, I feel this guilt always.
It's fine, optimise for your income and your investing journey will give exponential returns that your peers may not be able to match. For ex - a employee starting their journey may get 10L of ESOPs, but a director of engg gets crores worth of ESOPs in a startup.
Sadly have not jumped company in last 7 years, even though the salary is at competitive levels as per market standard, there is no ESOPs. My next switch criteria would be ESOPs along with good work culture for sure. 😂
But thanks for the reassurance 🙏