Here are some powerful principles about building your career

Many of us understand how painful early career years are. We feel like idiots 98% of the time – lost, confused and insecure. It’s the same feeling when you’re walking down the street and then your shoe gets stuck in a crack and a bird purposefully poops on you. 

That was a...vivid mental image. My apology for (slightly) oversharing. 

Anyway, here’s a cheat sheet of bang-on principles that I have gathered from Romeen Sheth who runs Metasys Technologies – an eight-figure bootstrapped business based in Atlanta – for those who are just starting out and feeling so green in any industry.

Principle #1: You’re not the “Strategy Guy”

Yet.

You are still learning and building understanding around how the industry works and how the business works. Give yourself permission to enjoy piecing together a big puzzle and be open to what you discover along the way. 

In other words, treat it as a learning process and don’t expect to be a big picture thinker right away. Just focus on bringing results and tangible value to the table, not laying out frameworks. 

Principle #2: Stay true to your commitments

If you make a commitment, see it through. Go all the way to tackle hard work head on, that way, there is accountability within the business. You’ll find it astonishing how quickly you can get ahead if you simply:

1. Say you’re going to do something
2. Do it
3. Repeat

Principle #3: Get on the scoreboard

Identify the low hanging fruit for your team and for the company. It’s something there but for whatever reason hasn’t been fixed. Fix it. Knowing where the potential work is, leaping at the opportunity and being able to deliver that will really help you. 

Principle #4: Nurture what you do well 

Define what you’re working towards, play to your strengths and build a career around what you’re good at. Deep love and enjoyment of the process will help you see the hard times out. Ask yourself these questions:

1. What do I like…
2. What am I good at…
3. What does the company need…

Principle #5: Join communities and make friends

There’s not a negative to joining communities. You will learn so much about your own practice, as well as other people’s. You can get advice from people with years of experience. It gives us goosebumps sometimes when we think about what members of