I’ve learned a lot in my 16 years of career style working life.
When you first start off you have no idea what you should care about. In essence there are an infinite number of things you could (and maybe should) care about. Let’s put this in equation form, where FTG stands for “fucks to give”.
FTG = absolutely no idea, probably all of them? maybe none of them?
Then after a few years, some learning, some failed moves, you start to assess an array of FTGs.
FTG = [“boss requests”], [“Internal stakeholder opinions”], [“data that indicates success”], [“customer needs”]
The challenge begins here. If you choose your approach wisely you can start to refine. If you choose to continue to add FTGs without prioritization or self analysis you’ll soon be a kid in a candy store of fucks to give. This will make you both insufferable to those around you, and highly unproductive. You will care about EVERYTHING.
Kid in the candy store array of FTG = [“every single thing anyone says”], [“criticism you think you don’t deserve”], [“every project that comes knocking at your door”], [“the asks and whims of uninvolved people”]
If you are smart you will develop a coalition of allies within your organization. Ideally you’ll have a wide variety of types of individuals from a range of disciplines. This group is your sounding board, your trusted network.
Your coalition can help guide you to refine your FTG array. You indicate the challenges you face, their reaction will guide you on your path to a refined list of FTGs. This is a two way street, you are just as valuable to them as they are to you.
You will also refine your array of FTG the hard way. You’ll forget to add a FTG that you clearly should have added, you’ll sometimes add too many things to the array and burn out and stall. This is unavoidable, but make it your mission to always be refining your list, prioritizing that list, and caring about only the most important FTGs.
Just don’t be that kid in that candy store of fucks, trying to give them all.
-Andy
