2 Employee Types: Quitter or Marathon Runner

I recently read the book Quitter, by Jon Acuff.  As a book, I give it a B+.  While it lacks the “call to action” his brand is known for, it’s a quick read with some good metaphors that will help the points stick.  In the book, Jon describes his own journey to attaining his “dream job”.  Prior to landing his ultimate gig, Jon was a serial quitter (in terms of his career), quitting 8 jobs in 8 years.  He discusses the paradigm that makes this both a positive and a negative.  It’s negative, because job hopping is frowned upon in our society.  He viewed it as positive because he gained a variety of experiences in a relatively short time that gave him “practice” for his dream job (not always in the most direct sense). 

While I only mildly relate to Jon’s personal journey, there is some real insight that comes from his book.  Jon Acuff may be one of the first of his generation to so eloquently put into words why he was a job hopper.  For the record, I do not think that job hopping is as terrible as the stigma it has in society.  I think there are some benefits to hiring a job hopper, and the benefits can outweigh to pitfalls (see 5 Reasons to Hire Job Hoppers).  However, I’m a logical person and understand you cannot build your entire workforce out of job hoppers.  Your turnover would be highly costly and the benefits would no longer be worth it.  Plus, in every career, there is occasionally some benefit in sticking around.  The hard part, is actually doing it.

"I'll give it two weeks. If I don't bring in my first deal by then, I'll go do something else.”  This individual was trying to cram a three month ramp-up into an impossible 14-day window.

"I plan on retiring soon.  I want to earn as much money as I can in the next five years, and then retire." It seems like this person is setting themselves up for disappointment by sabotaging their career with a plan to scramble up the corporate ladder in an unrealistic way.

"If the sales don’t come in and the job doesn't deliver in the first month, I'll know it's time to start interviewing."  It is scary to think this is actually someone’s career “vision”.

Welcome to 2013 where today’s generation can be summed up with one word:  impatient.  To Jon Acuff’s point from his book “Quitter”, today’s younger workforce is smart, ambitious, and eager to quit whatever it is they're doing right now to get promoted or make more money somewhere else.  Hate your job after one week?  Quit and find something better.  The logic is that if you move at this speed, it’s still possible to fail, but it will come quickly so you can move on to the next thing which might be the opportunity that puts you on the exponential career trajectory.

Why are we this way?  Well, it’s difficult not to compare ourselves to our friends, who post to Facebook and Twitter all about their fabulous new jobs, promotions and exotic vacations.  The unrelenting persistence with which we get these messages makes us re-examine ourselves and how we define success.  Additionally, a career change is right at our fingertips (or is it?).  With the Internet and wide availability of free information, you can quit your job in the morning, learn to code throughout the afternoon and read Mark Zuckerburg’s Cinderella story all before you hit the sack. 

Dan Gulati wrote that quitting early and avoiding getting stuck in a rut can be smart. But continually shortening your time horizons for career achievement and shirking hard work in the search for immediate silver bullets is a dangerous practice, and may actually limit your long-term outcomes. 

Dan says, “If you're someone who constantly obsesses about becoming an overnight success, you're aiming at entirely the wrong target.”  A study in the music industry has shown that music artists whose careers build more gradually are more commercially successful and have longer career longevity than artists whose careers catapult to the top overnight.  Consider this in terms of more typical careers.  I like to think of this as the “building” phase.  All careers benefit from enduring a “building” or growth phase.  This is similar to the growth phase of a business.  It’s important for the long term strategy.

Think about this logically.  If you are constantly working on a 2 year horizon until you jump to your next opportunity, the competition is high.  However, if you lengthen your horizon to 5, 7, 10, or 15 years, you will be competing against a fraction of people.  It’s the old marathon runner vs. sprinter analogy.  There’s certainly something to be said for working hard and creating value that is enduring.  The milestones will be bigger, and the end result will likely be more meaningful.  I encourage you to carefully consider your career decisions and to be honest with yourself.  Employ the right mix of job hopping and slow career success that will help you reach your goals.