We are still applying old rules to a new game.

The world of work is rapidly changing.

Even just a generation ago, the promise of safe and secure work for life was a reality for my parents.

Go to school, get good grades, get a secure job, work there for 50+ years and retire with full benefits. When you’re 65 you can now sail around the world in your yacht and gold watch.

Now we live in radically different times, with changing economic conditions and geopolitical contexts. Who knows how war will change the global economic order in years to come.

The internet has radically transformed or destroyed entire industries and sectors within a couple of decades. The introduction of Web3 threatens to do the same as decentralization will become the new normal.

But while things might have changed, society’s thinking about how we live, learn and work has not changed.

We are still applying old rules to a new game.

We still give advice to young people that once served as useful but are at best useless platitudes and at worst, leaving them broke and jobless.

Politicians, teachers and the education system don’t want to tell us the truth.

I can’t blame them. Why would they?

Never ask your barber if you need a haircut. These people have built their whole lives on a traditional system of learning and earning.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

— Upton Sinclair.

Here are the biggest lies we are still telling ourselves.

Lie #1: Your degree matters (part 1)

We are a society obsessed with credentials.

But your degree is only a representation of what you can do, not what you can actually do.

A degree is a paper badge that represents the skills you learned through a 3–4 year degree.

But we aren’t in the boy scouts.

Badges count for little without any practical experience.

I would much rather work with someone who has 3–4 years of practical experience with no degree than someone with a 3–4 year degree with no practical experience.

As Kevin Kelly once said:

The greatest teacher is called “doing.”

Lie #2: Your degree matters (part 2)

The best jobs in the 21st century are neither degreed nor decreed.

“Remember that anything important can’t be learned in the classroom. It must be learned by taking action, making mistakes, and then correcting them. That’s when wisdom sets in “ writes Robert Kiyosaki in his book Cashflow Quadrant.

What degree could you take to be the next Joe Rogan or Tim Ferriss?

None.

The best jobs of the 21st century are those built on digital leverage, not a degree or someone telling you what you should become.

Any job or skill that an institution can train you is at risk of automation or someone else can learn and compete with you.

If they can teach you, they can teach others.

With the internet, you can turn any passion project into a full-time job. You can monetize your knowledge, network, passion and thoughts.

You might need to take on additional accountability, risk, and uncertainty but the return on investment will be handsome.

Everyone has the potential to be the best at something. Keep redefining what you do to become the best at that one particular niche area.

Lie #3: Skills pay the bills

I work with a colleague who is highly skilled, but emotionally incompetent.

She’s fantastic at delivering the work but working with her is like dragging your limp body through broken glass.

Team members and clients have spoken to me about her confrontation style of communicating and how defensive she gets when receiving feedback.

She’s a technician, not a manager.

Almost anyone can become a technician, but not everyone can manage people effectively.

I would rather teach a natural leader technical skills than teach a technician emotional skills.

If you don’t learn to be able to communicate complex information and learn how to work with people, your skills won’t get you very far.

Nobody wants to work with someone who is an asshole or emotionally inept.

Lie #4: Don’t take risks. Play it safe and get a secure job.

The biggest risk in life is never taking a risk.

A lack of risk means no opportunity for growth in your career or self-education.

Learning is a risk. There is a risk you’ll feel like an idiot. There is a risk that you will learn nothing.

If you can look like an idiot in the short term, you will win in the long term.

Working for yourself is an even bigger risk. Your business might fail. People might laugh at you. You might feel embarrassed.

But staying at one job, receiving one income, and working for an organization that would get rid of you in a heartbeat if it meant saving their bacon is an even bigger risk.

Lie #5: If you do good work, you will get noticed

Put your work on the internet.

There’s no need to show off or brag.

Document your learnings, triumphs, failures, and stories.

I consistently put my work into the public domain to be viewed, praised, and rightly criticized. My weapons of choice are LinkedIn and Instagram. I am starting to use Twitter more.

People are uncomfortable with self-promotion, but I view putting your work out there in public as a form of learning and building a reputation.

In Austin Kleon‘s book Show Your Work, he writes:

It’s not enough to be good. In order to be found, you have to be findable.

If you don’t put yourself out there, you will never be discovered. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you. Because they never will.

You need to be proactive in building your network and community.

Once you’ve built enough momentum, opportunities will start to find you.

Since posting regularly on LinkedIn and consistently publishing articles on Medium, I’ve been approached with paid board opportunities, creating online courses and job offers.

I now have too many opportunities to take on.

Lie #6 You need to be an expert

Specialization is for insects (and doctors, lawyers, and engineers).

But even those professions are changing too.

Generalists will rule the world.

Those who are able to remain agile, constantly learn new skills, and are open to learning about new industries will thrive.

The creator of the Dilbert comic Scott Adams coined the term “skill stack” where you build a set of complementary and unique skills to increase the value that you’re able to produce.

In my full-time job, I work as a policy consultant. Almost any competent consultant can do what I do but very few are good communicators and know how to run a podcast or blog.

I am not in the top 1% of any of these skills. I would say I am in the top 25% of these skills but when I combine them together, I am highly valuable to any potential employer or client.

Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success.

As Scott Adams says, you can raise your market value by being “merely good — not extraordinary — at more than one skill.”

Summary

What we did in the past, will not be what we will be doing in the future.

Stop following the lies that society tells us.

Occupations no longer hold the same grand bargain of security and safety as they once did.

There are new rules to this game. Understand the rules to win the game.

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