"After years of "career experiments," two clear life paths stand out to me. Just two choices people make, sometimes without realising it. Decisions that define almost every area of our lives. The most successful people pick one of these paths early. And stick around long enough for it to work. Everything that follows grows from those two decisions. The work you do."
"You pick one skill. One craft. One path. And you go all in. Not ten things. One. You wake up thinking about it. You go to sleep obsessing over it. You become it. And own it. This choice scares people. It feels limiting. Like you're closing doors. You are. That's the point. Choice one is the engineer who's been solving similar problems for decades. Or the writer who's still honing her craft after everyone quits."
"Specific knowledge matters. It runs the primary systems we all rely on. For a writer, it's their voice. For a surgeon, it's a skill. The stuff people can't Google in five minutes. If you become the best at something, really the best, you can be so good they can't ignore you. But the process takes time. You need more than ten thousand hours for that. Being the best takes sacrifice."
Two fundamental life paths shape careers and long-term outcomes. Most successful people choose one path early and remain long enough to let rewards compound. Choice one requires selecting one specific skill, obsessively practicing it, and accepting the limitations that focus brings. Deep specialization builds reputation, stacked skills, and trust that opens opportunities. This path demands long-term thinking about personal fit and automation risk. Specific knowledge that cannot be quickly copied or Googled is most valuable. Mastery takes extensive time and sacrifice—often more than ten thousand hours—to become impossible to ignore.
Read at Fast Company
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