Be valuable to the people you meet
Recently I was asked by a soon-to-be-be college graduate, "What's the best advice you have for someone entering the job market?"
The best advice I can give for work or life: Try to be valuable to the people you meet.
What does being valuable look like?
Being valuable can mean providing help for large or in small asks, in ongoing projects or in short stints, through life-changing assistance, or just a simple day-changing action. Being valuable can be either proactive or reactive.
Some examples of ways that people have been valuable in my life.
Making an introduction.
Sharing a news article on a competitor, adding their own thoughts and insights.
Helping with the interview process for a new hire.
Offering to provide radical candor.
Providing book, podcast, or article recommendations on topics of business interest.
What does being valuable not look like?
Being valuable doesn't mean solving all of their problems. In fact, be honest with them in telling them what you cannot solve. I added a section to my Startup Resources telling people two ways where people assume I can be helpful, but I've found (oftentimes by letting people down) that I cannot be helpful.
Being valuable doesn't mean you need to leave them with brutal honesty in your first conversations. Sometimes being valuable is simply listening.
Being valuable doesn't mean you are obligated to provide help. You are trying to be valuable... you are not obligated to be valuable. Givers give and takers take. Avoid the takers.
Written while enjoying…
🎧 Washed Out
☕️ Switchyards Italian Soccer Internet Cafe coffee