So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport

Earlier this week I finished So Good They Can’t Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love by Cal Newport. In this book the author debunks the theory around following your passion and instead emphasizes on building career capital through developing skills. Last year I read his book Deep Work and I think this book. is even better compared to that.

Cal describes the following 4 rules to manage our career successfully.

Rule 1: Don’t Follow your passion

• Career passions are rare
• Passion Takes Time
• Passion Is Side Effect of Mastery

Rule 2: So Good They Can’t Ignore You (Importance of Skill)

• The Power of Career Capital
• Become a Craftsman
• Look for Autonomy, Competence, and Relatedness

Rule 3: Turn Down a Promotion (Importance of Control)

• The First Control Trap
• The Second Control Trap
• The Law of Financial Viability

Rule 4: Think small, Act Big (Importance of Mission)

Originally published at http://ashikuzzaman.wordpress.com on November 19, 2021.