How you can make something amazing happen

By Neil Patrick

I came across this today. It's Marissa Mayer from Google/Yahoo. In case you don’t know her, she was employee number 20 at Google and their first female engineer. She has had a distinguished career since and now sits on several boards including Walmart and Yahoo, where she is President and CEO.

Anyway, I like the method she describes here of how to choose from several business/career options:

The approach is elegant in its simplicity. And I think somewhat counter-intuitive. But more importantly, I think this approach is especially relevant to the over 40’s. Our life experience often encourages us to rely too much upon our own abilities in isolation.

The baby boomers grew up in a world with no computers, no internet and little globalization. And our education broadly matched the requirements of that world. Part of it was that we were taught that our own efforts matter more than anything else. It’s these which will dictate your results. It’s you against the world. Success is about beating your competitors.

But this is a different and more contemporary view. It recognizes that engaging with the best and most able people in a given field is the most important thing. It emphasizes collaboration rather than competition. Why go through all the trial and error and risks of figuring something out for yourself, when you can tap into the experience and learnings of someone who's done it successfully before?

One reason the internet and social media in particular are so powerful is because they foster and faciliate collaboration.

It's a whole new worldview for anyone born before about 1980.

It’s one of the reasons I set up this blog - to help mature workers to see the world of opportunities that is available to them if they have the courage and vision to venture outside their comfort zones.

The one thing that we like to cling to is the comfort of doing the things we know about. We feel safe and secure in our knowledge and experience of these things. But how can we grow if we do not extend ourselves continuously?

And the best way I know to do that isn't to challenge others, it's to challenge ourselves.