Richard Branson: This is the worst piece of career advice anyone’s ever given me
This is a snippet from the weekly CNBC Make It Work newsletter, written by Ashton Jackson.
Many of my career mentors have given me a similar tidbit of advice: Do what you know.
For the most part, it seems wise. I personally couldn’t imagine being in a job I knew absolutely nothing about. How long would it take for me to be successful? Would I get on my colleagues' nerves having to constantly ask for assistance?
But if you asked billionaire Richard Branson, it’s the worst advice he’s ever received. He broke through by doing the complete opposite.
“Most of my successful businesses were in industries where I had no industry experience at all,” Branson said on a recent episode of the Work Life with Adam Grant podcast.
Exploring new projects and fields is smart, said Grant, a Wharton organizational psychologist: People who stay in a single, familiar industry sometimes develop “cognitive entrenchment,” he said.
In other words, as employees and scholars gain expertise, they can lose “flexibility with regard to problem-solving, adaption and creative idea generation,” according to research from Rice University published in 2010.
Instead, “when you’re fresh to an industry, from the outside, you get that ability to see what’s taken for granted and challenge it,” Grant told Branson on the episode.
I find Branson’s perspective insightful — after all, you can’t learn something new without trying something new.
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Check out the full story to see more of Branson's top career advice.
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Founder and CEO I TEDx Speaker I Recruiter in Wealth Management I Leadership Coach I Keynote Speaker on Financial & Economic Empowerment for Women
1moI love this advice! I was an advisor in wealth management for many years before pivoting to recruiting (same industry). Every day brings something new to learn!
Business Owner at TKT home made mosla products
1moThanks for sharing CNBC
Retired at Mayo Clinic
1moI absolutely agree. Be open to learning new things, be curious and ask lots of questions and try doing something you’ve never done before. Dont waist time! Learn all the answers even if it’s “not your job” if you care about advancing above your position. Seek knowledge from everywhere and know yourself and prove to others that you are an innovator. That is what will set you apart and on a path to your destiny.
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1mogreat oppotunity
Self employed
1moMuch needed!