Not everyone finds career success following the same path.
For one woman who thought she’d become an attorney (but failed the LSATs twice), that meant doing a brief stint at Walt Disney World, followed by seven years selling fax machines door-to-door and occasionally working as a stand-up comedian. She knew she was good at sales but wanted to sell something she created and cared about. That woman—Sara Blakely—would eventually go on to found the global brand Spanx to help women feel great and see their potential.
Or consider the young man who immigrated to the United States from Belarus with his family. Growing up, he had very little. He couldn’t speak the language, and his grades were poor. He was bullied, picked on in school, and told he would never amount to anything. Yet today, that same man—Gary Vaynerchuk, serial entrepreneur, chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia and VeeFriends, and five-time New York Times bestselling author—says those challenges allowed him to reverse-engineer his success, seeing opportunity where others did not.
Of course, you don’t have to be a famous entrepreneur to succeed, but you can learn from their journeys.
Blakely and Vaynerchuk share the ability to adopt an often unpopular—or contrarian—perspective and make it work for them. In a career sense, it means they’re not conforming to conventional or practical approaches, education, or paths, and instead, seeking alternative means to career fulfillment.
Here are five reasons to be a career contrarian:
1. Because there’s more than one path to success—and it’s probably non-linear.
While there’s nothing wrong with a more traditional career approach, it’s by no means the only way. Shift your mindset to move past any preconceived notion of what you “should” be doing, and congratulate yourself on having the courage to create a new path that is uniquely yours.
And if the idea of making a career shift makes you nervous, take heart. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person changes jobs 12 times during their career.
2. Because failure and success aren’t mutually exclusive, they’re connected.
Here’s a simple truth: If you’re afraid to fail, you’ll never grow. Getting out of your comfort zone means you move past your fear to take risks, some of which may work out for you and some that won’t. And those that fall into the latter camp aren’t mistakes; they’re opportunities to learn.
Blakely says she used her failures as fuel to keep going. “Some people would call that time in my life a string of failures. But I believe that failure, in essence, is just life’s way of nudging you and letting you know you’re off course.”
By reframing failure as an ingredient of success—rather than a negative alternative—you’ll adjust your mindset to a more positive one where you see failure as a necessity.
3. Because you should trust your gut.
Many successful business people will tap into their inner compass for guidance, making career decisions driven by instinct and a belief in themselves—even if theirs wasn’t necessarily the easiest or safest choice.
Even Vaynerchuk admits to making most of his business decisions on his gut and intuition. “The bottom line really is this: you have to take chances and put yourself out there, and you’re not always going to have the data to back it up. Period. Not every decision is going to be safe. And that’s okay. Life is about those decisions. The more you make, the more options you have. The more options you have, the more you grow.”
4. Because you need to play the long game.
Even though social media would leave you to believe otherwise, success rarely happens overnight. Vaynerchuk says that too many people today lack patience in business. “I push patience because I know life is long. Everybody around here is running around like it’s not. Twenty-four-year-olds [are] running around like it ends tomorrow. Like they need it now. What’s wrong with being 26 or 41 or 73?”
Equally important, says Vaynerchuk, is having the clarity and discipline on your desired outcome: “If you’re single-mindedly focused on your long-term goal, you’ll be more effective in the short term and get there faster.”
5. Because taking an alternative path may inspire someone else to do it as well.
The journey of a career contrarian can often undergo intense scrutiny. But this attention isn’t always a bad thing. When you dare to use your varied experience, approach, and education to forge a unique professional path and find fulfillment in the process, you demonstrate to others that they can do it as well.
Remember, career success doesn’t come in a one-size-fits-all package. And by adopting an unconventional approach, you can carve a unique path to yours.
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