Book Report: 7 Big Ideas from "So Good They Can't Ignore You"

Elevator Pitch: 

A logical argument against the "follow your passion" career advice doled out in books, TV shows and guidance counselor sessions across the globe. In a world that tells you to "do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life," Newport presents the craftsman's approach to career success: do something, anything, purposefully enough and for long enough to find yourself on the cutting edge of your chosen field. Generating what Newport refers to as "career capital" along the way, the craftsman who has achieved mastery has controls over his own destiny: he can invest his career capital to design his work, and his life, as he likes.

Who should read this?

- Anyone under the age of 30

- Entrepreneurs, side hustlers, musician, athletes, investors... anyone putting in consistent effort towards building skills

- Anyone changing careers, or transitioning work environments (e.g from W-2 to 1099 employee status)

- People open to a paradigm shift in career advice

7 Big Ideas:

1) It doesn't matter what you do, it matters how well you do it

"Part of what makes the craftman's mindset thrilling is it's agnosticism about the kind of work you do. You don't have to sweat whether you've found your calling: most any work can be the foundation of a compelling career."

If you pursue difficult tasks and seek to improve yourself along the way, everything you do contributes to your skill set. Build it purposefully...

2) The key predictor of success: constantly soliciting feedback from colleagues and/or being forced to show your work.

Build an intimate understanding with the models you use in your business, and test them frequently. Become a craftsman who is continually inspired to become better, and the opportunities for success will continue to present themselves over time.

3) The 3 traits that define great work: 

Creativity, Impact (i.e. positively, on the world) & Control

This idea is mentioned several times using different words and emphasis, but the overall point is that great work across many industries and time periods can often be boiled down to a few common traits. To find work with high levels of one or all of these traits, one must accumulate and trade what Newport refers to as "career capital."

4) Concept of: "Career Capital"

Introducing and outlining this concept is the first half of the book, but put simply: your ability, tangibly and intangibly, to deliver a quality product the consumer/client is willing to pay for (especially when they're paying you instead of someone else. 

Early in your career, you invest a large amount of time to learning how to do your job well, building up your store of "career capital". After a period of time-on-task, you can trade your knowledge and increased productivity for more of what you personally identify as great work.

5) Concept of: the "Possible-Adjacent"

This is a particularly mind-bending concept that's better described in the book, but I'll try...

Once you have built up a huge hoard of career capital such that you arrive at the cutting edge of your industry (e.g. real estate), you gain the ability to understand the primary forces & trends which drive this industry (e.g. the local & global housing markets, and its interactions with new technology), allowing you to predict where things might go (e.g. is AirBnB going to fundamentally change the hotel industry, or will future taxation crush it into non-existence?"). 

This ephemeral realm contains concepts and business strategies which are not yet possible but what might become possible in the near future, and therefore provides limitless possibilities to provide a better customer experience. Continuing the real estate example: 

- "technology that is built upon a cloud-based platform, powered by big data and interconnected by artificial intelligence (a la Netflix & Amazon) is going to revolutionize the way people buy homes 5 years from now. I must respond to this trend by doing business with a company that can provide a satisfactory product before the shift occurs.

6) Concept of: "Think small, Act BIG!"

Building upon the Possible-Adjacent concept: 

"Advancing to the cutting edge in a field is an act of small thinking requiring you to focus on a narrow collection of subjects for a potentially long time. Once you get to the cutting edge, however, and discover a mission in the adjacent possible, you must go after it with zeal: a BIG action!"

The cutting edge is a real thing, and there is a lot of room at the top. If you've made it this far, you're no stranger to identifying opportunities and taking massive action to produce results... identify the value you can provide the world and build your legacy.

7) Value of: Deliberate Practice

The most effective way of building career capital, and the crux of the book: set yourself upon the task of self-mastery, of continual improvement, and of reaching the cutting edge of your industry. Sooner or later (with later being the more common outcome) you will find your space in the possible-adjacent. 

Overall thoughts

This book found me at exactly the right time in my career and was the message I needed to hear: in an increasingly distracted and anxiety-riddled world, the ability to concentrate on a single idea for long enough to fully realize it is an increasingly rare and valuable trait. Not only does that summarize this book, but also much of Newport's second book Deep Work: Rules of Focused Success in a Distracted World. Having the concept explained so succinctly and researched so thoroughly, it is undoubtedly a book I'll revisit and point friends & blog post readers to over time.

Have you gotten a chance to read it yet? Has my post helped sway you into picking up a copy? Let me know about it in the comments!