Cal Newport’s book “SO GOOD THEY CAN’T IGNORE YOU” debunks the belief that “following your passion” is good advice. He reveals that preexisting passions are rare and have little to do with how people end up loving their work.
Newport explores the reality of how people end up loving what they do, spending time with organic farmers, venture capitalists, screenwriters, and freelance computer programmers. He reveals that passion comes after hard work to become excellent at something valuable, not before.
Newport’s manifesto is mandatory reading for anyone struggling with their current job situation or seeking a fresh way to take control of their livelihood. He provides an evidence-based blueprint for creating work that you love.
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About the Author
Cal Newport is the author of seven books and the Provost’s Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Georgetown University. His words and thoughts are regularly broadcast on television and radio, as well as in prominent magazines.
According to his website, “I write on how culture and digital technology interact. Our battle to use these tools in ways that uphold rather than undermine the values we hold dear in our personal and professional lives is of special importance to me.
Review
In summary, I thought Cal Newport’s thoughts and conclusions were really helpful counsel for anyone, especially those starting or middling a career, even if I didn’t agree with everything he stated, especially in section four of the book.
Despite my disagreement with part four, I believe the rest of the advice is so helpful that it outweighs the one weak point, earning it a full five stars. In a way, I hope my rivals never pick up this book.
In summary, So Good They Can’t Ignore You is an amazing little novel that took me by surprise in a lot of ways. Although it was strongly suggested to me, I must confess that I was a little dubious since Cal appeared too young and in his early career to be giving me what my friends told me was “invaluable career advice.” It makes more sense now that I’ve read the book; Cal has a significant amount of professional capital already established. To learn more, read the book.
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Cal’s main argument is that the notion that you can leave your job and pursue your passions indiscriminately in pursuit of work that you will personally love and find to be your calling in life is fundamentally false; hard work is necessary for good things to come to pass, and valuable and rare items are bought in exchange for other valuable and rare items.
Cal introduces the main topic of the book—how to discover jobs we will truly love—after giving a number of examples of people who didn’t live the “work-passion-dream” and referencing several intriguing research and publications. Making oneself useful, or professional capital, is the first step.
The second stage is knowing when and how to take charge of your career. If you play your cards correctly and work toward it in the appropriate manner, you *can* ultimately quit your day job and establish your own business. Cal concludes by discussing the significance of having a career objective to give you drive and enthusiasm.
I thought the book was generally quite well written, well organised, and logical throughout. It’s clear that the author is a computer science expert at heart. It’s difficult to dispute that he makes a good number of well-reasoned arguments since his explanations, particularly in the book’s opening portions, so closely align with my own findings.
However, I felt that the fourth section—which dealt with missions—was less interesting, less well structured, and maybe even less well considered. Even though I personally thought that portion was far less relevant than the rest of the book, I nevertheless suggest reading it to grasp his points of view.
Even if I didn’t agree with Part 4, the ending made me appreciate this book once again. He describes how he has applied each of the book’s sections to his own work, and in addition to finding it generally interesting, I also found some of his specific suggestions to be helpful for my own work.
I seldom read a book that completely alters my perspective on anything, much less my career—I mean, I’m a certified public accountant, for crying out loud. I’m naturally opposed to change and danger.
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Summary
Instead of focusing on the value your work (or the world) provides you, adopt the artisan attitude, which emphasizes the value you’re creating in your work.
The passion attitude makes you acutely aware of the things you dislike about your work and causes you to wonder if this is the correct career for you. For example, “Do I love this?” or “Is this who I really am?” Additionally, you could mistakenly choose a field—like yoga—in which you believe you have a passion but lack the necessary abilities.
The artisan attitude emphasizes developing oneself and the caliber of one’s output. It focuses on becoming so good that, no matter what you do for a job, people can’t ignore you. Every day, you approach your task as a real performer. You just do what you do very well.
Take on the attitude of a craftsman first, and the enthusiasm will come. You must develop unusual and valuable abilities (also known as career capital) to offer in exchange for a wonderful job.
You may select a fantastic profession that is full of creativity, influence, and control once you have developed abilities that are too important to be overlooked. In order to take advantage of additional chances, you should aim to build up as much professional capital as you can.
When is the right time to quit your job? You should give a job some thought if it includes any combination of the following disqualifying characteristics. First of all, there aren’t many chances to set oneself apart from the competition by acquiring useful and uncommon abilities.
Second, the work was about something you believe is pointless or perhaps intentionally harmful to the planet. Last but not least, the profession requires you to collaborate with individuals you detest.
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The secret to building career capital is deliberate practice. Continuously pushing yourself outside your comfort zone and asking for quick feedback from professionals and coworkers are essential.
“An activity is designed for the sole purpose of effectively improving specific aspects of an individual’s performance,” according to the definition of deliberate practice. It involves repeatedly working on your areas of weakness. It calls for a never-ending learning process and a passion with improvement.
Mike Jackson’s time-tracking spreadsheet, in which he records his daily activities for each hour, is an excellent example in the book. He makes it a point to focus on the important rather than the urgent. He prints his figures at the end of each week to evaluate how successfully he accomplished his objectives, and he uses this information to help him plan for the next week.