Raison d’etre #24
Hey all,
Apologies for missing last week’s newsletter, it was a tough week for many of us in the tech sector. Writing these newsletters is a creative process, I just didn’t feel creative, and I respect and appreciate your time - so it was just best to miss last week’s issue.
I plan to share the experiences one day, but last week was not the right time, and neither is this week.
This week I wanted to change it up a little. I want people, including those impacted recently, to be more forward-looking. More optimistic.
Let’s begin…
Previously I’ve written about the reasons people stay in jobs they hate, given examples how you’re just a small disposable cog in a big machine and shown how ultimately you have no safety.
But today is different, today we’re going to talk about 4 things you should be thinking about to help open up your world.
Ikigai
[Image source: here]
If this is new to you, then great. If you’ve seen this before, consider this a refresher. Either way, I recommend you look at it first at the component level, then holistically - bringing everything together.
So what is Ikigai?
“Ikigai is a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living”
It has 4 components where you identify the following
What you are good at
What you love
What the world needs
What you can get paid for
Most people tend to only join some parts of it together. Or significantly apply more weight to some parts than other parts.
For example, when we often think of our career or job we tend to weight the ‘paid for’ part high. We also tend to align the ‘paid for’ part with the thing we are ‘good at’.
If we’re lucky, we will then try to find the passion elements in the job later.
On the flip side, for personal projects and side hustles, we might start at the top with things we ‘love’. We might use our skills or the things we are ‘good at’. But we also might not be able to get paid for it.
Let’s give some real examples.
I worked at McDonald’s, I was pretty good at doing it, and I got paid for it, but I didn’t love it.
I loved making games, I was not terrible at making them, but I didn’t get paid much for them.
Both are real examples.
Thoughts and tips for identifying each part
OK, so now we know there are 4 component parts. Let’s have a look at finding out what each part will individually look like.
What you are good at
This is an interesting one.
Why? Because it means being a little self-critical. It requires a deep understanding of you, your skills and also your peers. After all, ‘good’ is a relative term.
There are a couple of ways of looking at this.
What have you invested a lot of time in learning or doing?
How do you compare to others?
Where do you want to grow?
But think beyond the obvious skills you might see (in my case - machine learning). I’m also pretty good at communicating, sharing ideas, and engaging in conversation. I have a sailing qualification along with a VHF certificate. I can stand in front of hundreds of people and speak. I’m good at teaching, I’m good at researching. The list goes on.
Now here is the thing, which you might not like.
You don’t have to be the world’s expert at something, you just need to be slightly better than some other people at it. I’ve seen people get slightly better at something than the average person and build a career around it (providing they keep growing).
What you love
Next, look beyond the obvious skills. Instead, look at your strengths, and as Marcus Buckingham discusses…
You don’t have to be good at something for it to be a strength, and something you are good at might also not be a strength
So this sounds counterintuitive, right? And you are right, it is.
But, as Marcus says - you will go further focusing on what gives you strength rather than focusing on something which drains your energy.
Take me for example. 18 years ago I failed English at school. During my PhD I was heavily criticised by one of the academic supervisors for my writing. But, I enjoy writing and I got better at it, and because I enjoy it, it gives me strength.
Another example, I am good at building stuff and fixing stuff, and I’m even a qualified engineer, but over time I’ve become to dislike doing it. Even though I am good at it, it is not my strength. And that is ok too.
So have a think, what are you good at? And what gives you strength?
One way of doing this is just being self-reflective. Another is more deliberate approach is using an exercise called “loved it, loathed it”. To do it, make a document with two columns, in one column write the heading “loved it” and in the other “loathed it”, then do either of the following…
For 1 week, have the document at the side of your desk and write down the things you are doing in either of the 2 columns.
Or, sit and spend some time thinking of a certain time in your career and write down things you either loved or loathed.
By the end of this, you should have an idea of what you should do more of and what you should do less of.
What the world needs
Now we’re looking external, we’re looking outside of ourselves and now need to start paying attention to the world outside.
I can think of 3 obvious ways to identify what the world needs.
Firstly, and the most obvious is… [drum roll please] we look at job vacancies. Let’s be honest, it’s the easiest way to do it. We know what we are good at, we know what our qualifications are. The job vacancy tells you what they want, what experience they are looking for and what qualifications the future employee should have. So we just match ourselves to the job vacancy.
Absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’ve been doing that for 20+ years. I’m sure most people reading this have done the same and will continue to do the same.
It is the most straightforward way of identifying ‘what the world needs’ it also covers the next part too ‘what can we get paid for’.
Another more difficult approach is, identifying problems in the world which need solving.
One example of this for me was, I wanted to have a go at buying some shares but I didn’t know which ones to buy. If only there was a tool which was simple to use, recommended shares and was accessible to small traders (so I built my own).
I’ve seen many small businesses start this way, including online career/HR/legal coaches. All servicing a small niche.
The third approach - is simply looking at what other people are doing. You don’t need to solve a net new problem. Have a look at what other solopreneur’s are solving for, and what services they are providing. We’re likely not trying to knock a giant monopoly off its podium, there should be enough to go around. I give four examples in the solopreneur issue,
What you can get paid for
Now this is the thing that stops a hobby from being just a hobby.
It is essential that whatever you do is sustainable. And I mean financially sustainable.
Let me tell you a story…
There was a woman, she was kind, she loved animals and her passion was volunteering at the local dog kennels to help care for dogs which needed rehoming. She was good at it, she loved it and there was demand for it. But it was a volunteer position. She didn’t get paid. Luckily her husband was a millionaire.
This is a true story by the way.
But imagine the same story but without the husband with the millions. How would she keep doing the things she was good at, the thing she loved and the thing that the world needed? She wouldn’t be able to, because she wouldn’t be able to afford her own shelter, her own food, her own utilities, etc.
It wouldn’t be sustainable.
And this is how we should think about things. Yes, you can cover the other 3 areas, but if you can’t sustain yourself, then you can’t sustain the whole thing.
Summary
In summary, if you can align these 4 things:
What you are good at
What you love
What the world needs
What you can get paid for
Then you have found your Ikigai, you have found your “raison d’etre”, your “reason for being.”
You will have found a sustainable way to use your skills, doing something you love and what the world needs.
Fin.
Thanks for reading this far. Thanks for all the encouragement people have shared. I appreciate you all.
I hope these newsletter help in someway, I appreciate not every issue or every sentence will resonate with everyone, every time. But, I hope overall they are helpful in some way.
As always, wishing you a fantastic week.
For us in Ireland, it is a long weekend.
Best, John