A CFA, CPA, Union Card, Pilot’s Instrument Rating, RN, Jivamukti
Yoga Teacher Certification... hell, a smartphone and a driver’s license
are credentials that distinguish you. College is the most athletic and
agile of certifications. If college is not your jam, you need to find other
credentialing to separate you from the other 7 billion people on the
planet whose average pay is $1.30/hour.
The Accomplishment Habit
People who achieve goals in one area achieve them in all areas.
Whether it’s making the finals in Division 3 field hockey, winning your
elementary school spelling bee, or having an oak leaf cluster pinned on
the shoulder of your army uniform, accomplishment is a habit that can
be cultivated and repeated.
Winners, first and foremost, have to be competitors. You cannot
win without stepping on the field, and it’s only by taking that risk (you
may get beaned in the face), exposing yourself to failure, that real
accomplishment is achieved. Competing requires bravery and action-
orientation. Steve Jobs took a lot of grief when he returned to Apple at
the turn of the century and announced that he only hired As, because
As only hired As, while Bs hired Cs—but he was right: winners
recognize other winners, while also-rans can be threatened by
competitors.
Competing takes grit. The nonglamour sports academic
competitions (crew, gymnastics, water polo, track) are also a breeding
ground of competitive grit—the subject of a lot of attention in business
books, incidentally. If you can row 2,000 meters after throwing up at
800 and beginning to lose consciousness at 1,400 meters, then you
can manage a difficult client and summon the will to push something
from good to great.
Get to a City
For years, we believed the digital age would enable us to “work
anywhere”—a utopia of people living in quiet mountain cabins,