You Don’t Need a Career Plan. You Need a Recharge Routine.

Choosing a career focused on impact means embracing a path filled with long-term uncertainties and doubt, so firstly, congratulations! The 19th-century Romantic poet John Keats called this Negative Capability: the courageous ability to exist within uncertainties, finding meaning in questions and doubt themselves rather than in immediate answers.

To thrive on this journey, I believe four elements are crucial: building a strong community, clearly defining your personal and career priorities, having a great recharge routine, and finding a therapist.

Build a Strong Community

It’s vital to cultivate a diverse and supportive network. Seek out like-minded friends who are navigating similar career paths, but also actively connect with driven professionals from entirely different fields. Engaging with lawyers, professors, architects, and others outside of your industry (like tech, in my case) keeps your perspective fresh, and sometimes it’s important to be pulled out of your professional bubble by friends who share similar drive and values.

Additionally, find mentors who truly make you feel seen and empowered, not those who put you down. Unfortunately, some successful individuals become so attached to their own point of view and definition of success that they struggle to be open to different perspectives or backgrounds. A good mentor should know how to be supportive without coming into every conversation thinking they have all the answers. Because nobody ever does (see John Keats)!

Define Your Personal and Career Priorities

Be rigorously honest and clear about what matters most to you, both personally and professionally. The objective isn’t to create a rigid lifetime plan; priorities and values naturally shift as your life changes. However, being clear about them, especially when evaluating a new job or opportunity, is paramount.

Figure out what you genuinely want to prioritize: creativity, measurable impact, financial compensation, autonomy, or something else entirely, and write it down. Most importantly, if you are interviewing, you must actively vet for these values. Ask interviewers pointed questions that help you determine if the opportunity aligns with your core priorities. Nothing is more rewarding than interviewing a candidate who asks insightful questions about Near Space Labs. It shows they are seriously vetting whether the opportunity is right for them.

Find What Truly Refills Your Batteries and Create a Routine

You need to identify what genuinely replenishes your energy reserves and then establish a non-negotiable routine to protect that time at all costs. This could be dedicated reading time, exercise, walking your dog, meditation, attending concerts, or simply hanging out with a friend. I spent most of my early career working non-stop, and while I loved the work, I deeply wish someone had encouraged me earlier to take time for activities other than reading and coding. Protect your well-being; it’s the foundation of your long-term impact. Need more convincing? Go read my thoughts on 996!

My routines are some of my most cherished times of day: my mornings and wind-down before bed. In the morning, I wake up around sunrise and make a strong cup of coffee, nothing else matters, just the light coming through my windows and the smell of fresh beans. I sit in my armchair, drink my coffee for a few minutes and look out the window, then I head out to the gym for my best hack - powerlifting

Powerlifting became a form of centering and meditation for me. I got into lifting heavy weights a little over a year ago and it has absolutely changed my life. The lifting sessions are truly designed to get out of one’s head and feel present in your body. And then after my workout, I’m ready to face the daily challenges with a clearer head. Shameless plug: I wrote about how powerlifting has made me a better founder here.

Do Yourself a Favor and Find a Therapist

Introspection is an incredibly underrated asset in the professional world. No matter your career path, you will constantly be navigating complex social and business dynamics, needing to quickly connect and find effective ways to collaborate with many different people.

Having as clear an understanding as possible of how you show up in various situations and how certain interpersonal dynamics affect your emotional reactions and behaviors is essential for sustained professional success and personal health. A therapist can provide the tools and perspective necessary for this deep self-understanding.

One of the hardest and most important things I continue to work through as a founder is the effort to untie my own self-worth from the performance of the team and the company. This challenge is common for anyone prioritizing meaningful impact. While I haven’t fully succeeded, therapy has helped me navigate this effectively.

Much has been done to de-stigmatize therapy, but there’s still a long way to go. So take it one step further and make therapy normalized and accepted. Can’t make a meeting because it conflicts with therapy? Tell your team! Your team member wants to WFH on the days they have therapy? See you tomorrow!

Do What Works for You! (But Definitely Still Get a Therapist)

After discussing this with a friend, he shared advice he received: “Build the company you want to be a part of.” Though I’m not religious…amen to that!

But seriously, there are so many tangible things driving career decisions, and one thing you need to know about getting advice is to always take advice with a grain of salt (besides getting a therapist)!