In many industries, even the most talented must “pay dues” before they can play.
Promotions happen once a year.
One of the ways they do it is through what I callThe Frank Sinatra Principle.
He’s talking about associatingbrand equitywherein New York becomes a yardstick, a proxy for credibility.
I’ll illustrate with a personal example:
“Sorry for that dose of cold water!”
aWIREDeditor wrote, after kindly letting me down.
Work hard enough to get noticed and eventually upgraded to the slightly less crappy role of Fact Checker.
Keep writing the perfunctory stories until you get promoted to Reporter.
Your high-profile dreams have come true!
A career climbing the magazine ladder inside of Conde Nast was one way to prove it.
(I pitched several blogs until someone gave me a shot.
I have a great story for you.")
Repeat Step 2 until you get where you want to be.
(My path went: The Next Web > Gizmodo > Mashable > Fast Company >WIRED.
I have a great story for you.")
Just six months after my initial email,WIREDpublished my first feature-length story.
Not to brag, but I now get emails every month fromWIREDasking me to pitch them more.
But sufficiently good writing and the brand names of other publications were all it took to establish my credibility.
Once up theWIREDladder, it was easy to climbsidewaysto other publications.
If I could make it there, I could make it anywhere.
Any career path can be hacked this way.
This is how, for example, the youngestFortune500 CEO got her job.
Marissa Mayer rode into Yahoo!
using her credibility as a young executive at Google (after she hit a ceiling there).
It’s why we hired Eisenhower as president, though he had never been elected to a political office.
Do amazing work until you reach the minimum required credibility to climb one ladder rung higher.
Grab the next rung up, using the “Frank Sinatra” credibility from the previous gig.
Go back to Step 2.
In Smartcuts, I write about how computer programmer David Heinemeier Hansson (a.k.a.
DHH) used this tactic to hack the ladder in competitive race car driving.
I won one race, I got a third, then I moved up to this other class.
I did three races in that, and then I jumped straight into basically the top level."
Maybe they do it another year because now they’re one year more and they’re more experienced."
He just got enough points to qualify to become the worst driver in a better league.
Then he raced until he got just good enough to be the worst driver in an even better league.
(“I always wanna be the small fish in the big pond,” he said.)
Now DHH races at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and other world-class events, with a top-ranked team.
Consider how you could think like Sinatra in your own career and make it anywhere.
Image adapted fromBokehStock,Gts, andInga Nielsen(Shutterstock).
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