Quotes About Career

One with a cubicle and a desk that snags your panty hose and endless memos about the right way to dispose of recyclables. And lots and lots of petty intrigue and small-minded politics, all intended to distract you from the fact that you're getting two percent raises from a company that's returning twenty percent to its stockholders. That's a real grown-up's job.

He had not, perhaps, understood that Agatha would mind so much; he might have believed that her independence would sustain her. She had money, a career, Rosalind, Carlo, Madge. She could travel if she wanted to. She had so much more in her life than a husband. That was part of the problem for him, after all: that she had so much else besides him.

Reading fiction as you commute to a job you don't like will make you feel somewhat more fulfilled; being in the right job will make you feel incredible.

This is the 168 Hours principle for work: Ideally, there should be almost nothing during your work hours—whatever you choose those to be—that is not advancing you toward your goals for the career and life you want.

I define "work" as activities that are advancing you toward the career and life you want. If they aren't, then they are not work. This is true even if they appear on your work calendar or you've always done them

There is a lot of randomness in the universe, but truly lucky people recognize that fairy godmothers are lazy. If taking your career to the next level will require your fairy godmother to tip her wand, make sure the wand is pointed at you, and that you're standing as close to her as possible, so all she has to do is nudge the thing like a bored barfly fiddling with a cocktail glass.

Building a career—and raising a family—are meaningful activities, but they require a lot of energy. To do our best, we need time we can count on to recharge, apart from these obligations. We need time to do things we find intrinsically energizing for ourselves, as individuals.

Harsh as this sounds, if you're not in the right job—a job that is moving you toward where you want to be in life—then you're wasting almost all the time you're spending at work.

This conscious decision to hunt for the positive can help combat the common tendency to focus on dark moments, the sort that lead us to stormy conclusions about whether life with a big career and a family is doable. Sometimes things look bleak, but life is not all black-and-white.

In my previous book, Grindhopping, I told young entrepreneurs to ask three questions: What do I love so much I'd do it for free? How can I get someone to pay me to do that? If there's no obvious job title in an organization doing what I love (and often there isn't), what's a low-cost way I could start a business doing that, and get the cash register ringing quickly?

Any "work" that is not advancing you toward the professional life you want should not count as work. It is wasted time.

I put my career in second place throughout both my marriages and it suffered. I don't regret it. You make choices. If you want a good marriage, you must pay attention to that. If you want to be independent, go ahead. You can't have it all.

Seafaring is the most suitable occupation they can find to sustain themselves

Work is done by those [employees] who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

Given enough time—and assuming the existence of enough ranks in the hierarchy—each employee rises to, and remains at, his level of incompetence.

Many a man, under the old and the new systems, has made the upward step from candidate to legislator, only to achieve his level of incompetence.

super-incumbent," who is "a person above you who, having reached his level of incompetence, blocks your path to promotion").

A part of her wanted to stay home, to simply be with her children, but her own mother had always scorned those women who didn't work. "Wasting their potential," she had sniffed. "You've got a good brain, Elena. You're not just going to sit home and knit, are you?" A modern woman, she always implied, was capable—nay, required—to have it all.

A part of her wanted to stay home, to simply be with her children, but her mother had always scorned woman who didn't work. "Wasting their potential," she had sniffed. "You've got a good brain, Elena. You're not going to sit at home and knit, are you?" A modern woman, she always implied, was capable - nay, required - to have it all.

All her life she had heard her mother's heart Drumming one beat: doctor, doctor, doctor. She wanted this so much, Lydia knew, that she no longer needed to say it. It was always there. Lydia could not imagine another future, another life. It was like trying to imagine a world where the sun went around the moon, or where there was no such thing as air.

Si vendica, e bene, la vita, se qualcuno le ruba il mestiere.

Take calculated risks with your career. Don't let fear consume you. And if you're not having fun, you're not going to be excellent.

a big company makes a wonderful place to go and semiretire for a while if you're burned out. But if you're striving to be remarkable (which you are!), a big company is a hard place to get into the right groove in the same way that a bakery is a bad place to go to try to work off your love handles. The solution? Go independent!