5 Advantages to Being Close to Your Career Idols

Read time: 4 minutes

Hi Proactive Professional,

Have you ever had that "this is what I'm meant to do" moment of clarity? I'm not referring to being forced to answer the question "what do you want to be when you grow up" in kindergarten (my favorite response is my little cousin's desire to be a "magic trick").

It's that spark of excitement when you brush up against something you'd want to do for the rest of your life. Those moments don't happen often, and usually you have to go out of your way to find them. The lucky ones happen upon this moment at some point in their life, whether it's at 20 or 50 years old. The smart ones chase this moment down.

This weekend I re-watched Bill Gurley's famous talk, Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love. It's one of the talks I recommend most to connections and it's well worth the hour run time. Whether you've had the “moment” or not, Bill Gurley gives some amazing examples of how being close to the right people (i.e. your idols) can put you on a path to doing something that you love. And success, however you define it—health, wealth, happiness, etc.—will follow.

Re-watching this talk made me reflect on my career so far. Upon first glance, I thought I had done the exact opposite of Bill Gurley’s advice—I was making life/ career decisions based on what I was told.

• Unsure of a major in college ➡ told to study finance, so I did

• Unsure of a job ➡ told to pursue investment banking, so I did

• Knowing banking wasn’t my career ➡ told private equity was the natural next step, so I took that

• Not getting what I wanted out of private equity ➡ told my skills could fit strategy roles, so I did that

But as I thought harder, I noticed I was always intentional about one specific aspect: Wherever I went, I wanted direct access to the decision makers, the people that already had that moment at some point and successfully pursued it.

With this, I reflecting again on my career:

• I decided against J.P. Morgan in favor of a smaller industry-focused investment bank where I worked directly with Senior Managing Directors and the executive teams of the companies we advised

• I looked only for family- and founder-focused middle market private equity firms, where teams were lean and the portfolio companies’ executives appreciated my advice

• I only evaluated strategy roles at companies with flat structures in order to work closely with the executive teams and be included in all important meetings

• Ultimately, I gained a roadmap from the people I surrounded myself with to start my own business that I'm passionate about

In each role, I positioned myself as close as possible to people who have found their life's work. Sure, I learned about the drastically different companies and industries I was in (healthcare, manufacturing, consumer brands, niche aviation). But more importantly, I learned about the drive those around me needed to get to where they are and how they honed in on the right skill sets to make their dreams a reality.

I don’t think I’d do any part of it differently because of where I am now. But my advice to anyone thinking about getting back on the path towards what they believe their life’s work could be is this: Pick the people you want to be close to, not just the job you think could act as a stepping stone. Those people can accelerate your learning, give you valuable advice, and use their networks to open up doors you never could imagine.

5 Advantages of Being Close to Career Idols and Experts:

There’s a massive benefit to finding your life’s work as soon as possible.

Getting closer to career idols and experts is one of the ways you can expedite that search process. Just don’t get too close…

Watch Bill Gurley’s Runnin' Down a Dream: How to Succeed and Thrive in a Career You Love

Best of luck building,

Devin