Ep 52 Career: 6 ways to screw up your career

In this episode of The Crazy One, Stephen Gates dives into the 6 most common career pitfalls that can derail your growth before you even realize it. Learn how to recognize and avoid these hidden traps, along with actionable strategies to steer clear of common mistakes and set yourself up for long-term success. Tune in to gain valuable insights that will help you navigate your career journey with confidence and avoid setbacks along the way.

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Stephen Gates : 0:00

What's going on everybody, and welcome into the 52nd episode of The Crazy One podcast. As always, I'm your host, Stephen Gates. And this is the show where we talk about creativity, leadership, design, and all kinds of things that matter to creative people. Now, be sure take one quick second, go to your favorite podcast platform, hit subscribe. And while you're there, take just a couple seconds and be sure to leave a review. For those of you who are based in the United States. You know that last week was Thanksgiving. And so I took advantage of that fact and did something incredibly crazy. I actually took a week off. I landed back from Europe yesterday afternoon, so we're going to see if we can power through this show before the jetlag monster gets a hold of me and I undoubtedly pass out facedown on the couch for the remainder of the afternoon. But until that happens, let's actually go ahead and talk about something. Now I've been getting a lot of emails lately from people asking for career advice. And the thing that I found is that a lot of my answers surround sort of similar themes, things that are Really about what are the things not to do? What are the things to watch out for as you go through your career, whether this is should you make a change? Should you not make a change what you do with the next step in your career. So today, what we're going to do is we're going to talk about six fantastic ways to screw up your career. And these are the six things that I see happen the most often I've seen them happen in person, I've seen them happen from people who write into ask me questions. They are things that happen very easily, but the effects of these things can be profound. And now this is another one of these hard subjects, because it's yet another one of these things that we don't want to talk about with each other. And that's the problem is if these are things that we don't want to talk about, how do we know for making mistakes? How do we know not to do these certain things? Because the reality is, is if you make a mistake, especially in your career, not exactly something you're putting on LinkedIn, not exactly something you want to share with your friends. That's what this show is is this show is wanting me to Be able to show and help kind of consolidate all this advice in the hopes that it can help people not make these same mistakes, and hopefully make a little bit of some better career choices. So there are six different things that I've seen. And I see them on a very regular basis. So let's walk through each one of these just to have you be able to think about these things are these things that maybe you've done in your career, these things that maybe you're thinking about doing? And if so, hopefully, maybe it'll get you to stop and just think about it a little bit longer. Now, the first one and the second one are separate, but they are actually kind of related. And the two biggest things that I see and these are the places where I've seen so many good careers get screwed up, are whenever you see somebody that what they want to do is that they either want to chase a title, this meaning that they've been in an art writer position for a certain amount of time, and they've just simply decided that this is their time that they need to be a creative director or they want to chase a salary which means They feel like there is a particular lifestyle that they want, there is a particular sort of amount of money that they want to make, and so that they're just going to go take whatever job will pay them that amount of money. I've actually known people who honestly have asked for how much money they want to make, because they've decided what lifestyle they want to have. And then they back that back into a salary number. It's not based on experience. It's not based on their book or anything like that. And so these are separate things, but they're very, very much related. And that's the thing is that I've seen so many talented people, where they just get this point in their career where they get this sort of thing stuck in their head. And the problem is, is that when you just focus on something like salary, or you just focus on something like a title, you're ignoring a lot of other really important factors and you're becoming very single minded and very short sighted, you all watch as they go out and they get that title or they get that salary. But then all those other factors start to come into play because what they'll do Then start to realize as well, maybe the team they're working for isn't any good. Maybe the company or the client isn't any good. Maybe the work isn't any good. Maybe the opportunities for advancement aren't there and a lot of these other things. And the problem is that then all of a sudden, these things start to take their toll as they slowly realize that that title or that salary, can't get them all the other things that are so important in this job. Now, if you're one of these people who can just say, look, all I want is a title that's gonna make me feel important. All I want is a salary because it gets me this lifestyle. And you can shut all the rest of those other factors out, where if you don't really care if your career progresses, if your work gets any better, or things like that, and I do know some people who can do this, that's fine. But the problem that you're going to need to realize is that the progress of your career is going to grind to a halt. The progress of your portfolio, the quality of your portfolio is either going to start to standstill or even worse, it may actually start to go down backwards, and you're gonna find yourself then years later, as you can't find anything new, and either you're gonna have to start over or even worse, you have to drop back a rung or two on your career ladder. And that's a really big problem, because the short sightedness of the title, the short sightedness of that salary, got you that instant gratification and got you the thing that you felt like you deserved. And you became so focused on it. But the problem was, was that you took the short term gain, but you lost the long term progress. And so I think that this is one of these things where you really need to be aware of this and you can't be blind to things like this. The thing that I'll tell you is that I've been at this for a long time. And that the longer I've done this, the longer I've realized how little titles really mean, to the point where Honestly, I kind of find it funny because almost almost inevitably I'll get a resume from somebody. I'll see somebody on LinkedIn, and they will have some just gratuitous Oh overblown, huge, global creative director of mega Alta, innovator, you know, disrupter, all, whatever all this crap in their title. And I can almost guarantee you before I even look at their work that it means that they haven't really done anything. Because that's the thing is that nobody I know who is really talented. Nobody I know who is really an innovator or a disrupter, whatever put it in their title, they just wouldn't. It's just, it's one of these things where you, you really just come to understand that the things that you are going to respect, you're going to respect experience and creativity, leadership, work ethic, you're gonna respect where the rubber meets the road, not a title. Nobody gives a shit at the end of the day about a title. This is the same way like nobody's ever looked at my grades. I didn't finish college, nobody cares about that stuff. What they want to see is where the rubber meets the road. What is my work like? What is my leadership like, what are my results like? And that's the thing is that I know so many people with such big titles who aren't God could not fall off a boat and hit water. Usually, the more you want that title, the less you know. And so I think it's just it really is something to think about about why do you want that? Because the reality is, is that if it is just for respect, I can almost guarantee you that just getting a title alone will not get you that respect that you want. Hard work will creativity will putting in the effort will but just having a title on a card. Yeah, go that's fine go and pressure on your own culture, family reunion, but for those of us who actually do this, and for the people who actually make the decisions and give out the jobs that you're going to want, we don't care. Now salary salaries, a little bit of a touchy subject and I clearly understand that because whenever you we want to talk about people's living, we want to talk about the house, they live in their lifestyle, they can give their family, the different things like that. That's something different and I've talked before about salary and how to know what your value is if you haven't listened to Episode 31 or 36. Those were both listener questions show Go back and listen to those because it talks about how do you start to figure out? How do you set your value? How do you understand how do you ask for a raise? How do you do a bunch of these other things. But here's the thing that I would just warn you about is that no, if you jump to a much higher salary band, that is beyond your experience, there will be consequences down the road, whenever you are suddenly held to the standard of that salary by future employers. And I've seen this all too often because the reality is, is that if you want to, you can go to a much smaller company, a much smaller agency, where you're a much bigger fish in a much smaller pond, and that you can get paid a lot more for doing it. But if you're one of those people who is going to chase the salary, who's going to go to the smaller agency, go to the smaller brand, but then get frustrated by the fact that well, now all of a sudden, I'm not working on clients people have heard of now I'm not working on the sort of things that are going to make me happier I want to put in my book. So now I want to come back to the mainstream brands. Now. We want to come back to to mainstream agencies, you are still going to be carrying a disproportionately high salary from those smaller companies. And so as a result, people may like you people may do a lot of those sorts of things. But whenever you get to the conversation about salary, you're going to find that all of a sudden there are consequences there and then a lot of those conversations may dead end. So it's fine. Take that bigger jump, take that bigger salary, get the better life for your family, but then understand that you're gonna have to work your ass off to them rise to the level of that pay, because that's the thing unless you're just wanting to go from crappy job to crappy job and trust me, there are a lot of people I know who made a living doing just that. It's not the road that I would recommend, but you can do it. But this is one of those things is that you know, those are the sort of traps that are going to sit there where Don't let your ego Don't let the fact that you feel disrespected or the fact that you feel like you should you just want a better lifestyle, but you haven't put in the work to earn it yet. Create a trap for you because there will those consequences for them down the road. Or the bigger problem is, like I said was something like a title, it's not going to pay out the way that you think it is, it's not going to bring you that respect just because you have a title. That's not what people are going to look at. And so this will then actually segue into the third way that you can screw up your career. And this is another one of those traps whenever you're changing jobs that I think you need to think about. Because whenever you want to change salary want to change title, more often than not, that means you got to change jobs. It's so incredibly rare that companies are actually able to promote within they're actually able to provide substantial salary changes. And so often what we need to do is that we need to change companies. Now, the problem with this third one is that what happens is that this is a problem that happens all too often. You decided that you aren't happy in your career and that it is time for a change. But the problem is, is that once you make that decision, then you really want to leave your job even more. I always kind of think it's like What if you've ever shopped for, I don't know what a car or a phone if there's something that all of a sudden you're in the market for. It's amazing how now all of a sudden, that's what you see everywhere you drive down the road, you see that car, everywhere. Whenever you're out in public, you see everyone with that phone that you want, right? And this is something that Apple has built their entire business on is that they make it this object of desire. Well, that same mentality so often applies to jobs. Because the problem is that once you decided that you have a problem that you want to leave all these little things at work, suddenly they annoy you so much more. People are so much more annoying than all these little things just keep piling up and little things that you would have just brushed off before. Well, now that you know you have that itch, you'd know that you these are people you want to leave behind. You either start to dismiss them or you're more annoyed by them, like everything just gets amped up. Well, the thing here is that then what you're going to do is you're going to start looking, you're gonna say look, I'm gonna get out of here, I'm gonna go get a new job. I'm going to show these people And then you start to go out into that hunt. And this is an incredibly insecure time. Because you're putting yourself out there, you're putting your work out there, you're asking people to judge it and to like it. It's a similar tension to what we've talked in the past about whenever you get a creative brief, the first time you have an idea, the first thing that relieves that tension feels miraculous. This is why so often in the creative process, I'll talk about how important it is to not fall in love with your first idea. Because yes, you feel like that tension has been released, you have a solution to the problem. Well, your job hunt can work exactly the same way. Because the first time a new opportunity comes along, you are so excited with the possibility of change, of leaving that job of leaving all the things that annoy you so much that you actually need to stop and take a breath. Because the problem here is that you need to stop and see if this new job really is as fantastic as you think it is. Or is it just the facade of fantastic because it's new. And that's why this happens all too often is because people just simply want to leave because it's new because it gets them out of that situation that annoys them, it gets them out of that job. It's the promise of new possibilities. But the thing is, is that you have to make sure that just because it's the first may not necessarily mean it's the best to take the time to really think it through to make sure that this isn't just a quick solution, but it's the right solution. And to make sure that this new job is actually something better because that's the thing that you'll see so often is that these people will jump they need to leave, they want to get out and then six or eight months later you get an email from them saying hey, do you know anybody that's hiring because you know what this this new job really isn't any better? I thought it was gonna be great, but but I don't really like it and you can actually find people who become these sort of serial opportunists. I guess we wouldn't call them and these are people that there is no place on their resume that they had been for more than 18 to 18 months to two years, because they go, they love the opportunity, well, then the opportunity doesn't work out. And then they cut and run. As an employer, that becomes a real problem. Because if I see a pattern of this, I want to hire people that I can invest in, I want to hire people who want to be a part of my team. I don't want to hire people who are going to come get very excited, somehow get disillusioned, and then decide that they need to move on. It's really it's a high turnover cost. For me, it's a high people cost in the fact that we have to train these people get them a part of the team, whenever they leave, that's disruptive. So it starts to become a warning signal. But this is the thing is that you have to be able to make sure that it's the right thing, not just the first thing and this is why for me, and this be in luck, I my positions do tend to be a little bit bigger than the average. But on average, I know if I ever get to a place where I feel like I have done everything I can in my current position. I've tried everything I've done everything. But the problem is is that I Don't see it getting better? Well, then I know it's probably going to be, I would say, a minimum of eight months, a maximum of 18 months for me to find the next right opportunity. Because there are tons of opportunities that are out there. If I wanted to leave tomorrow I could. That is a stupid thing to do. One of the biggest reasons why I've been so successful is because I've been so insanely selective about what the next opportunity has been that it hasn't just been the first thing that came along, it was the right thing that came along. So that's what I want to make sure that you're doing in these cases is to make sure that it's the right job, that there's a long term opportunity that they will support you that there is budget, and that there are a lot of these other things that are there, they're gonna set you up for success. Because the other thing that you need to realize is that this is such a critically important moment to make sure that things get right and this is why these first three traps are so bad, is because if you come in into the wrong situation, if you come in and you don't have things set up the right way Because don't make no mistake about this, you will never have more power to affect the way your job is going to be done, you'll never have more power to shape the way your role is going to be then before you get hired, because that's the point when you want them, they want you, they're more willing to negotiate, they're more willing to change things, once you're hired, then it becomes much more of a status quo. So understand the power of this moment, understand the reason why I think this is such a big trap and why those three things are so incredibly important. But there's a segue here because the other part of this is that whenever I talked before about making sure that I feel like I've done everything that they're really these regular places around a step back, and I want to take stock of my career, I want to see, am I making progress? Are things still going in the right direction? Am I still achieving my goals. And the reason why this is so important, because the fourth really thing, a fourth way that I see a lot of people screw up their careers is that these are People who honestly don't know when they should quit. Because this is the thing. And this is a bit of an inverse to the other problems that we talked about. Because the other problem is tend to be more impulsive. They're more people who want to be reactionary and emotional, they want to come in and screw this place, and I want to quit and man, they're not going to be the same without me and all of that. These are the people that are the opposite. These come from the people who instead of getting too frustrated, these are people who are infinitely patient, and that they may often you almost always see light at the end of the tunnel, not necessarily realizing that the light at the end of the tunnel might actually be a truck. And that this is the thing is that as a result of all of this a result of this optimism, this over abundant optimism. They stay at their job far too long and far beyond when they should have because their career has stalled. Their work is stale, and they just simply don't have any prospects. And the last three conferences I've spoken at, I've had multiple people who have come up to me Asking about how can they bring about change in their company? Because this is something that they've been trying to do, but they haven't found any success. And that these are so many of these people, whenever I say, Well, how long have you been trying to do this? How long do you feel like you've been stalled? I've gotten answers from two to four years, that they have made no progress. And look, on the one hand, I am certainly somebody who will preach that there are no magic bullets, I will preach that there needs to be hard work to be able to move your career forward. But at the same point, you need to just understand that sometimes you can't fix stupid, you can't fix bosses who don't want to change. You can't fix companies who refuse to value design. That is just simply a cold reality and that all the optimism in the world isn't going to fix that there are tons there are so many opportunities and companies that looks so interesting to me. But the reality was whenever I sat down with the CEO, whenever I sat down with leadership, I could see that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. It was a lot of lip service. It was a lot of using the word innovation like they understood what the hell it actually meant. But here's the thing is that yes, you need to stay and you need to build something don't become the person that is overreaction and don't become the person that jumps all the time. But at the same point, don't become the person that is so naive or that is too afraid of change are so worried about what that change might bring that you become paralyzed to the point of inaction. I've said it before I will say it again. This is why I say things like comfort is the enemy of greatness. Because if you grow too comfortable, if you are too afraid of what that change is, then you're going to get stuck. And you're going to get stale and that these are the people that I wish would just hear me the most These are the people that I wish would listen the most the ones who will write to me and talk about how I talk about creativity the way that they wish it was, but for them it isn't. their bosses don't understand they have tried but they can't bring about change. They're stuck in places that are boys clubs that are stuck in places where there just simply is no value for design and all of these other things that are all the reasons why again, you need to take a step back on a regular basis and take stock of your career, if you are not making progress if you are not moving forward, and if you do not see a way forward for that to happen, then those are the moments when you have to have the resolve to know that you need to make a change. Because there we just we don't have a ton of time to be able to do this work. And as a result of that, you have to be able to understand what your value is you have to understand what you can bring to the table and if there are people who don't respect that you need to leave. It's a hard decision to make and that's what I said for me I come to that decision whenever I literally feel like there is nothing else I can do. I have tried every different approach. I have talked to every person I have literally exhausted myself to the point where I am sure that there is not a road forward. Because at that point, that's the only way that I can start to even think about becoming comfortable from walking away from what I've built, from the people that I've hired from the people that I've invested in, this is not a decision that is all taken lightly by any stretch. But at the same point, I need to know that if I can't make progress, and if there are too many barriers in my way, that I have to look out for me, I have to look out for what's gonna be best for me, and I need to make a change. So I think that would be my only thing is just to make sure to regular basis that on the one hand, don't be overly impulsive and just come in and screw this place. I'm out of here, I'll take the first thing gone. But at the other point, don't become so infinitely patient that you actually stall your career and find the balance between those two, because I think that's what those first four things because I think that's what I see most people struggling with, where is that tipping point? Have I put in enough time or am I too impulsive? So just think about those things before you do any of those moves. Now for the fifth thing, we're going to shift gears Here's a little bit because the other big mistake. The other way that I see people really screw up their career is by thinking that technology or apps or something like this are a career path. This is why I am pretty much never invited to speak at art schools. Because so often what you'll find is so many art schools simply want to teach the tools or the technology and don't and don't get me wrong here. Technology is an absolutely critical part of creativity. Are you kidding me, I work in digital. That's basically you know what this entire thing is based in. But at the same point, don't get this twisted. Because at the end of the day, any app any technology is no better than a pencil. And it is nothing more. It needs to be a tool for you to be able to communicate your ideas. It is something that you need to learn to the point to which it becomes transparent. If you're in sketch and you're creating something, you want to know this program to the point right, don't have to think about Okay, go to the menu, click on OK, now I need the rectangle tool and I need to bring that out and Okay, now I need to put a stroke. I need to do it, I need to get past that where I'm having to consciously think through the steps be able to do something where the tool becomes transparent to me where I can just literally go in and create. Because the thing is, is that, you know, I've done this long enough that I've watched the entire, I've watched multiple generations invest their future into a technology, probably the biggest crash and burn that I was was able to have a witness to, was watching so many people who honestly thought that knowing flash or knowing how to program ActionScript was going to be their ticket to success. And I watched that entire dream. Thousands and thousands of hours get completely crushed in one single keynote from Apple, Steve Jobs, introducing the iPhone, showing a web page and in the side of that web page, and for those of you who are old enough to remember this, that he went to, I think it was the New York Times whenever he scrolled up through that page, there was an ad that had the little Lego piece. It was a blue Lego piece that had a question mark. inside of it, which was the sign for a plug in that wasn't out there. And this signal kind of the war between apple and Adobe, because Apple had decided that they were not going to allow flash onto the iPhone. Since then, obviously, we've seen the rise of mobile, we've seen the death of flash. But that was this moment, where an entire line an entire group of people watch their career slip through their fingers. Because the thing is, is that if all you're going to do is to focus on the tools of execution, your career is going to flatline or worse, your career is going to become a commodity and I talk about that a lot, because it is an industry that so often will pretend to value people who are commodities, but at the end of the day will not pay them will not promote them will not reward or value them the way a fantastic individual contributor should. And the reason why that is is because what they know is that that skill set is going to be transient because things change, flash went away. Now all of a sudden, we're kind of like into responsive but now responsive may go away. As we look at more voice driven interfaces, we look at interfaces that we're looking at in cars and on, you know, Alexa and all these other things. So that, again, we know that, yeah, you've got a value, and that you may know this thing really well. But don't make a mistake about it. There is a countdown clock behind each one of those to be sure. Because the thing is that even if you become truly an exceptional individual contributor, those roles are incredibly rare. And you're probably going to be among the best in the world to be really successful at it. And the competition is really going to be tough. So the thing that I would tell you to do here is to think about how do you base your career in the ability to have great ideas to lead people to deliver results to do things that are going to be more timely Less things that more every company is going to need. Because the reality is that I know if I can deliver great consumer experiences, if I can deliver creativity, if I can deliver leadership, however, the tools may change, I can roll with that I can learn whatever the new tools are. But that foundational skill set can be applied to any of them. And then that becomes something that's a bit more timeless, because those are the things that lead to better positions, they lead to more pay, they lead to more control. And there's unfortunately, just not a whole lot of ways around that. So you would need to be honest with people and this is the thing is that if they are unwilling to learn if they're unwilling to grow beyond that execution stage of their career, and I do know a lot of people who want to do that, and that's fine. Look, leadership is not for everyone. I would not recommend that you do it just because you want to get more money because again, that's not going to lead to a good outcome. But you need to understand that there's going to be a ceiling and there's going Be a limit to what you're going to be able to accomplish just as an individual contributor just as somebody who really understands just that one sort of aspect of it whenever you just understand a tool. So my hope my ask, the thing that I would try to advise you on is to see them as tools as something that you can use, but as part of a much greater kit as part of something that is much larger, that you're gonna be able to leverage to create something more meaningful than just simply the ability to understand how a tool works. Now, for the sixth and for the final one. And then we have things like not thinking about apps as a career path, right? Like that's very tactical. This last one is a bit more. I don't know what I'd say maybe esoteric, maybe it's a little bit softer, a little bit fuzzier. Because the last one really is much more about leadership because so much of what we do drives you down that path. This is the inherent Problem stress, I don't know what you want to call it. But there's just the simple fact that the longer you're in this industry, the further it will pull you away from what you love. I've talked about this before about I came into this industry as a designer yet, the longer I do it, the further I get away from my ability to actually design. Leadership comes in creative direction comes in hiring people, and politics and strategy and all this other stuff come into it. But this is that thing, though, is that just because you take on a leadership position. There is something here that I've talked with at length before about how leadership requires a totally different set of skills that then to just be good at execution. And the thing here is that there's a subtle wrinkle to this that I've seen really derail and scrub too many careers, where it really comes down to the fact that there is a lot of leadership that has very little to do with the quality of the work your group produces. It is an unfortunate fact. Because and look, don't get me wrong, the work is obviously incredibly important it is the output it is the reason for being for your group. But if you want to be successful as a leader, you have to excel a hell of a lot more than just the ability to give good creative direction. You to excel at things like politics, relationships, alliances, understanding power structures inside of companies, and inside of leadership's budgets, team dynamics, like so much more of all this stuff that surrounds creativity that sets up your team that sets up the creativity to be able to be successful. And the thing is that all of those things really traditionally are not thought of and when we talk about Creative Leadership, but it's so critical for success, especially if you're part of an in house team, good lord. I did an episode before about how to be a successful in house creative director. That's the whole reason why, but this is the last thing is that I think that to be an effective leader, you have to understand that too. Not screw up your career means that you're going to have to focus on more than just the quality of the work. Because I've seen so many talented people who are good at leading creative, but are not good at leading teams. And so I think I just wanted to point out that difference because I'm not sure in episodes in the past, I maybe have drawn that line well enough. That Yes, there is the part of it where you need to sit down need to help guide your team, you need to do the 10 8010 rule, you need to do all these sort of things that we've talked about, they're going to set them up to be creatively successful. But there's all these other things, all of the things that honestly hopefully they never see they're never a part of, but they're these other parts of things that you're going to have to know that you're going to need to sign up for and to be a part of, if you just want to stay in your little hole if you just want to go through and be able to kind of concentrate on just putting out good work and think that's enough. I've seen so many good people get fired just for that. Because the ask is going to be so Much bigger especially like I said, For in house, because you're part of a company creativity in creative and design is not the reason for being. So you're going to be asked to contribute in much larger ways. So I just think that it's something you need to think about in terms of being successful as a leader, that that isn't a trap, where you just think, oh, if the work is just good, that's going to be enough. Because it really unfortunately, it's not going to be and so I think you just need to be prepared for what that is. And the challenge here is for me is that there's not any really good advice that I can give here. Because what those challenges are going to be are going to be different for every company for every structure for every power group instead of egos based on your strengths, your weaknesses, how much do you need to be involved in budgets and all of these other sorts of things. But just be aware that that it is important, you need to pay attention to it, because that's why I said I've seen a lot of people who put out really get who put out really good work, but still get fired for it. So These are just a few of the traps that I think, unfortunately, lay in weight over the course of your career. And it's a really hard balance, not to be so shy and so timid, that you don't, you're afraid to take a risk. But at the same time, that you're calculated and thoughtful enough to make sure that the moves you're making are good ones, that you're not being reckless that you're not going out and just kind of flying around. And getting into that emotion to that instant gratification of, you know, I just want to find something different. So I'm out of here because there is that big cathartic moment of, you know, take the first thing that comes along and see how quickly I can get hired. It's a balance. It's it's one that we all struggle with. It's one that every single person you work with, struggles with, they won't tell you that they won't admit to any of it. They're not going to say this, this was a really great move, or Wow, I really screwed this up. This is the problem because we all go to conferences, we all get on these boards. We're all on LinkedIn, and we're all We're all victims of our own bullshit. We all sit around wanting to pretend like everything is so great, like our jobs are so wonderful that you know, everything was planned and it was all part of this. You know, who have you ever thought of that you saw walking down the street you saw in an industry event, you saw a conference. And you know, you went up to them and you said, hey, how's your job going? And they said, You know what, man, I really hate it. I really screwed up. I took the wrong job. I once twice, maybe ever have you heard somebody actually admit to something like that. But that's the thing is because of it, then we all suffer because we won't talk about these traps. We don't talk about these problems. So just make sure that you're trying to make sure that you maintain that balance. Where again, don't don't stick your head in the sand and say, Okay, I'm just gonna stay here for forever. But don't be the emotional and impulsive on either because as creatives we're occasionally known to be an emotional bunch. If you found any of this at all helpful. Do me a favor, go to favorite podcast platform lever review while you're there, hit the subscribe button so you're sure you get the newest episodes whenever those come out. As always, you can find more about this podcast different related articles all the show notes that go into all these that I put in there in great detail. Head over to podcast Stephen Gates calm Stephen as always as STP Ph. n. Gates comm follow me on social media like the show on Facebook, if you have any questions, write to me on facebook write to me on social media, I get back to everybody that I can to try to answer as many questions as I can. As always, the boys down the legal want me to remind you that the views here are all my own. They don't represent any of my current or former employers. These are just all my own thoughts. And finally, I say it every time because I mean it every time. But thank you for your time. I know that time is truly the only real luxury that any of us have. And I'm always incredibly humbled that you want to spend any of it with me. So I have a date with a shallow jetlag coma on my couch within the next 20 minutes. In the meantime, how about if you stay crazy