....And Then A Miracle Occurs...

It wasn't often that they released us early from classes in Business School, but there we were, filing into the auditorium, to hear a panel discussion on careers and success and leadership and all the other things we wanted.

Each of the speakers was a Very Successful Person, in companies ranging from biotech, to software, to manufacturing.  They each talked about their personal journey to leadership, where they started, what they do now, and so on. The stories varied, but they all sounded the same:

1. I worked really hard
2. ....and then a miracle occurs....
3. I'm the successful person I am today.

This bothered me more than was strictly reasonable.  As someone who was desperately trying to "crack the code" of career success, I wanted some direction and guidance... not some live-action infomercial.

When Q&A came around, I asked "[...] I noticed that all of your stories followed a similar path, starting with working hard, continuing with some unspecified miracle which allowed you to move up through the ranks, and then success. Can you crack open that middle part and talk about what that miracle looked like?"
This garnered a few laughs, but mostly it made the people on stage visibly uncomfortable.  A couple of them handwaved a bit and talked about how they were asked to work on a large project, but no specifics, and nothing actionable.

I walked away feeling very smart, in that ignorant kind of way.

Fast-forward to about a year ago.  I was the driving force behind the creation of a web performance consulting organization within my employer, and I moved to another part of the company to do bigger things.

If I were asked about my path to success, I would tell the exact same story that those people on stage told me.

Why?  Because there's never a miracle.

In career success stories, "...and then a miracle occurs..." is shorthand for "and then I walked uphill in the snow (both ways!) for five years, and when an opportunity came that I could fill and no one else could, I had the reputation necessary for the organization to invite me to fill it."

It's not like large organizations have any more sophisticated apparatuses for determining who is the best fit for a role, even at the highest levels.  There are people, there are reputations, and there are opportunities.  I'll never know for sure who said "I know someone who might be able to help us with <project>", but I can be near certain that that's the way I got picked to take that hill over there.

So, how do you get to that point?  There are tons of articles on networking that will give you innumerable tips on what to do.  Rather than add to that pile, here are a couple of other things to keep in mind:

Grunt work is rewarded with more grunt work.  IF all you do is show a fantastic aptitude for one particular thing AND show no desire to do anything else, THEN that's all you'll ever get asked to do.  This also extends to not being somewhere that opportunities can pop up... faster-growing organizations will give you more chances than slow-growing ones. That being said, actively avoiding grunt work for the sake of being destined for better things will get you a reputation of "unwilling to get your hands dirty", which doesn't help either.

Being liked isn't enough.  There are plenty of people who are only well-known for being liked.  It's the "Internet Famous” problem: being "liked” is necessary, but not sufficient. Otherwise, when the discussions about "Hey I know this person who can <x>" come up, your name will never get mentioned unless the primary trait they need for the project is "someone who people don't hate.", which is not a unique skill.

Last but not least, don't look for a miracle.  Success in the workplace is nearly always anti-climactic.  Typically, you'll have a feeling about getting the award/promotion/etc. you're getting long before you get it.  The surprise promotions play well in the movies, but it hardly ever works that way in real life.

Living in a world without career miracles may not be as dramatic, but it's usually what success looks like.