Introduction
So let’s assume that there is this coffee shop which just opened in your town. It sells the best coffee you’ve ever tasted. You are so enchanted by the taste that you go daily with your friends to drink the same, awesome tasting, cup of coffee in town.
After a week, you start to get used to it (due to hedonic adaptation, it’s your brain’s fault :)) and would like to try something else. Suddenly, you notice that the coffee shop with the best coffee in town sells just one product: the coffee you got so used to. You come again after a week as you started to miss that awesome taste.
Summer’s here, it’s hot. You would like a refreshment after drinking your coffee. Too bad: there is nothing except the single type of coffee available to purchase. You “forgive” them, because the coffee is still the best in town.
After a few weeks, you go on holiday and upon returning are eager to get back to the coffee place. When you get there, you see that the coffee place no longer exists and the space is advertised for rent. A quick online search reveals the place went bankrupt.
You begin to feel bad about this and start thinking why did this happen. Then you remember: they sold only one product. It was the best, but still. Ever since they opened, they sold one item and one item alone – the best coffee you’ve ever tasted.
You put on the business owner hat on and start thinking what should have changed in order to avoid this. You remember that the last time you visited the place, it was really hot and you were thirsty. So having some refreshments would have certainly helped.
As you check other coffee shops, you observe that besides coffee, which comes in multiple different flavors, they also sell refreshments, cookies and coffee related products and accessories.
In conclusion, even though the place was selling THE best coffee in town, due to inability to adapt to the changes and seeking new opportunities like selling refreshments in the summer, the bills added up and the place got closed.
Believe it or not, this can easily happen to you! Ok, so how can this be avoided? One option is switching your mindset and viewing your career as a business.
Career as a business mindset
Think about it! It really makes sense!
When you start getting used to be paid every month regardless of your performance, you’ll most likely think of yourself as just an employee at company X. This is fine of course, but you shouldn’t let the role you have in that company define what to do for the rest of your life. It is very easy to fall into routine, collect paycheck after paycheck, not changing anything and eventually getting pissed you are not promoted or get a raise.
If you switch your mindset from being just an employee to company X to having company X as your customer for the business you own, several good things will start to happen.
Firstly, you’ll get more engaged in what you do and make sure that your customer is happy with what you deliver, be that for a product or a service you are providing.
Then, you’ll start taking better business decisions such as checking what product or services you are currently offering and constantly revise and improve them. You can then decide whether it’s time to expand your products or services by acquiring new skills.
All these will lead for your services/products to have a higher tangible value. Once you know this, you need to communicate this value to the others and why it’s a better choice than the offerings of others.
This is how you will differentiate yourself from others and how you can earn well-deserved jobs/promotions.
In Software Development World
In the software development world, you will constantly need to learn new things and keep up with the new technologies. If you want to be a good developer, you need to be disciplined and learn properly.
Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that most people these days don’t. They try to cut corners, proceed even though they don’t fully understand what they are supposed to be doing, see asking for clarifications a sign of weakness for some reason etc.
Having such an approach will get them up to a point and if they don’t mature before they reach that point, they will start to get frustrated and feel stuck, even though they don’t do anything else differently.
All in all, software development is not rocket science, and in MY opinion, anyone can give it a try and see how it is. This is why I’ve created the Intro to Programming course, which aims to help people making the first steps in the software development world.
Is it mandatory to make these first steps in a disciplined and healthy way, in order to build a solid foundation to lay the future of your career on.
The course targets both students and people looking for a career change. This is why, for this to work the best as possible, you need to adopt the career as a business mindset.
Investing in another field is tough and time consuming, but if approached correctly it can be done. It won’t be easy as you need to also keep your current job and learn another craft, but it is doable. As a business owner, you are in control of your own career, so make sure to always expand, revise and improve your product or services.
What approach do you use in your daily life?
Photo by Dominika Roseclay
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