So Good They Can't Ignore You - Cal Newport

This is Cal Newport's investigation of what it takes to be so good at your job, that you can't be ignored. Unlike many online personalities, he doesn't tell you to follow your passion, in fact he feels it leads to a life of disappointment as you continue to fail to find the "right" career and thus never feel the fulfillment you're told to expect.

Instead of passion Newport tells us we need to buckle down and focus on the things that matter in our job then do those things well. Continue to do them well, and stick with your career. On the other side emerges an expert in their field, and often someone that does enjoy what they do because enjoyment comes after all the hard work required to be an expert.

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- Apple Computer was decidedly not born out of passion, but instead was the result of a lucky break—a “small-time” scheme that unexpectedly took off. ([Location 228](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=228))
- Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion. ([Location 266](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=266))
- In Wrzesniewski’s research, the happiest, most passionate employees are not those who followed their passion into a position, but instead those who have been around long enough to become good at what they do. ([Location 306](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=306)) ^cd514f
- The more I studied the issue, the more I noticed that the passion hypothesis convinces people that somewhere there’s a magic “right” job waiting for them, and that if they find it, they’ll immediately recognize that this is the work they were meant to do. The problem, of course, is when they fail to find this certainty, bad things follow, such as chronic job-hopping and crippling self-doubt. ([Location 357](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=357)) ^b4cb59
- there’s something liberating about the craftsman mindset: It asks you to leave behind self-centered concerns about whether your job is “just right,” and instead put your head down and plug away at getting really damn good. No one owes you a great career, it argues; you need to earn it—and the process won’t be easy. ([Location 524](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=524))
- If you’re a guitar player or a comedian, what you produce is basically all that matters. If you spend too much time focusing on whether or not you’ve found your true calling, the question will be rendered moot when you find yourself out of work. ([Location 545](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=545))
- The central idea of this chapter is that the difference in strategy that separates average guitar players like me from stars like Tice and Casstevens is not confined to music. This focus on stretching your ability and receiving immediate feedback provides the core of a more universal principle—one that I increasingly came to believe provides the key to successfully acquiring career capital in almost any field. ([Location 947](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=947))
- if you just show up and work hard, you’ll soon hit a performance plateau beyond which you fail to get any better. ([Location 1026](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1026))
- This is what you should experience in your own pursuit of “good.” If you’re not uncomfortable, then you’re probably stuck at an “acceptable level.” ([Location 1169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1169)) ^542934
- Giving people more control over what they do and how they do it increases their happiness, engagement, and sense of fulfillment. It’s ([Location 1311](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1311))
- enthusiasm alone is not rare and valuable and is therefore not worth much in terms of career capital. ([Location 1375](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1375))
- To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career. It’s more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. It provides an answer to the question, What should I do with my life? ([Location 1678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1678))
- missions are a powerful trait to introduce into your working life, but they’re also fickle, requiring careful coaxing to make them a reality. ([Location 1698](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1698))
- Note: jist because you have some fancy mission does not mean the world pwes you any type of success
- Hardness scares off the daydreamers and the timid, leaving more opportunity for those like us who are willing to take the time to carefully work out the best path forward and then confidently take action. ([Location 1702](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=1702))
- your goal is to love what you do, I discovered, “follow you passion” can be bad advice. It’s more important to become good at something rare and valuable, and then invest the career capital this generates into the type of traits that make a job great. The ([Location 2186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=2186))
- Most knowledge workers avoid the uncomfortable strain of deliberate practice like the plague, a reality emphasized by the typical cubicle dweller’s obsessive e-mail–checking habit—for what is this behavior if not an escape from work that’s more mentally demanding? ([Location 2251](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0076DDBJ6&location=2251))