What's the Best Advice You Ever Got?
/I was recently asked what was the best career advice I ever received. That’s a hard question; I’m blessed to have received a lot of great advice! But, there was one piece, in the first month of my career, that has been foundational.
As a young kid right out of college at Bell Labs, my first boss told me to always have 3 slides in my back pocket. These slides should describe
The problem I was trying to solve and why it was a problem,
Why it was worth solving, and
What I needed to solve it.
This was several decades before entrepreneurship and pitching were a ‘thing,’ but it is a pitch! So why this advice back then? He told me that you never know who you’ll run into that could be interested and helpful in what you’re working on. They might just be the person to provide support, be it collaboration, funding, and/or other resources.
Rarely did I have to ask for funding at Bell Labs. However, given our freedom to work on side projects, I needed to show someone why they should spend part of their or their staff’s side project time to work with me, hence the 3 slides. I can’t count the number of times those 3 slides came in handy over my entire career - and still do.
This sage advice taught me customer discovery for potential users and stakeholders from whom I needed buy-in, idea validation, quick design - prototyping - iteration, clear communication, and many other lessons. They have applied to all sorts of situations, clients, projects, and are fundamental and a big reason for my success. Some advice is timeless - from 1982 to 2024 and beyond.
What’s the best advice you’ve received?
