As a leader, I’ve already learned many life and career lessons, yet a singular truth resonates with me: growth often requires sacrifice. I have learned that the hard way, but I have no regrets, as it was also a valuable lesson. I would like to share my insights with other young career professionals and aspiring leaders to grapple with this concept and appreciate its profound impact on personal and professional development.
Envision for a moment, the sapling yearning to become a grand oak. It doesn’t grow overnight; it takes time, sunlight, water, and nutrients. There’s a trade-off: the oak sacrifices immediate comfort for enduring stability, strength, and stature. Our careers are much like the sapling. The path to leadership and success is laden with difficult choices, compromises, and trade-offs. For growth, we must learn to lean into discomfort and embrace the sacrifices that ultimately serve our ambitions.
Recognizing the Need for Sacrifice
The first step is to acknowledge that sacrifice is inherent to growth. Steve Jobs famously said, “If you want to do great work, you have to love what you do.” Jobs made considerable sacrifices throughout his career, including dropping out of college, which at the time, was a socially risky move. Despite the criticism and self-doubt he faced, his decision allowed him to dive headlong into the tech industry, leading to the creation of one of the most successful companies in history.
Takeaway? Growth starts when we identify what we are willing to give up to achieve our dreams. It may mean abandoning your comfort zone, tackling your fear of public speaking, or, like Jobs, pursuing an unconventional path.
For me, growth very often required a lot of hard work. When I was preparing for a very demanding interview for an engineering management position abroad, I spent restless hours coming up with a proper strategy, preparing my presentation, and getting ready to answer challenging interview questions. There were times when I felt scared and thought that I’m not going to make it, but I was lucky to have wonderful people in my corner who gave me a lot of support. In the end, I didn’t land the job, but I have gained a lot of experience and established a valuable mentoring relationship that lasts till today.
Dealing with Trade-offs
Professor Stewart D. Friedman from Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has written extensively on work-life integration and leadership. His book “Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life” discusses the concept of “four-way wins” – improvements in work, home, community, and self that result from strategic and calculated trade-offs. This research also demonstrated that successful people often reject the idea of having it all. Instead, they prioritize their goals and accept that achieving one goal may mean putting another on hold.
Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, often spoke of the sacrifices she made to achieve her professional goals. Balancing her role as a mother and a corporate leader meant making tough choices daily. There were countless dinners missed and bedtime stories untold, yet she stood steadfast in her commitment to her career. Despite these sacrifices, Nooyi became one of the most influential women in business, shaping PepsiCo into a global giant. Her story teaches us that to reach significant milestones, we must prioritize our goals and understand that some trade-offs are essential for progress.
One of my favorite movies that is based on actual events, “Hidden Figures”, presents the story of three women who worked at NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. To be successful, they had to show heroic endurance and made a lot of sacrifices. I particularly like the story of Mary Jackson (portrayed by Janelle Monáe), who wanted to become an engineer more than anything. That desire made her go through a court trial to be the first black woman to be accepted as a student for an evening engineering course. And to top that, she then put her family life on the scales in order to complete it. This reminds me of a similar sacrifice my mother made. At the time she was working two jobs as an accountant and making her higher degree at the same time. It must have been so difficult for her, and I’m sure she would prefer to spend more time with me instead, but as a single mother, she was doing everything she could in order to provide for her family.
The Concept of Deliberate Practice
But sacrifices aren’t just about trading comfort for progress; it’s also about dedicating your time and energy to your craft. This is where the concept of “deliberate practice” enters the scene.
A term popularized by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, deliberate practice involves focused, consistent, goal-oriented training. This method involves pushing past our comfort zones and dedicating substantial time to honing our skills – sacrificing leisure for progress.
Mozart, a classical music prodigy, wasn’t born with his extraordinary talent; his father made him practice intensively from a very young age. Later in life, Mozart himself invested hours each day in his craft, giving up many other life pleasures for his music. This dedication resulted in his timeless compositions that continue to captivate audiences centuries later.
But it does not take to be Mozart to set goals that help navigate your life and career. Some of you know that for the past few years, I have been working with a coach. This guided process helps me to grow in many aspects, such as self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and communication to mention a few. Does it require sacrificing other things? Absolutely! But as long as I’m getting results, I know it is worth it. Without having a proper strategy and life vision, it would require a much longer time to get where I am.
Fostering a Mindset of Growth
A key ingredient in the recipe for growth is the right mindset. Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., a psychologist at Stanford University, suggests the importance of a “growth mindset.” People with this mindset believe that abilities can be developed through hard work, strategies, and input from others.
To foster a growth mindset, we must learn to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as a path to mastery, and learn from criticism. It’s about trading short-term ease for long-term success. For years I have been passionate about testing theory, which has led me to start my Ph.D. research. This work and the practical experience I gained in my role as a tester and test leader, were full of obstacles and things that didn’t go the way I planned. But from perspective, I realize that they have shaped my approach to testing and problem-solving in general, making me a better engineer. I also truly hope that they helped deliver some great products that support industrial automation solutions.
If there’s something I truly value Elon Musk for, is that he has faced countless obstacles and criticisms throughout his career, yet, he continues to strive, undeterred by failure, as he believes in growth and progress. His sacrifices of time, energy, and financial stability have led to breakthroughs in electric vehicles and space travel, changing the world as we know it.
Conclusion: Growth is a Journey, Not a Destination
Of course, making a sacrifice is difficult, which is truly the point here. There was a point in time when I was offered a department head position that would have been great for my career, but it would require sacrificing some of the things that I value, one of which could be my Ph.D. research. I was afraid to let it go so much, that no matter crazy it may sound, I didn’t accept the offer. The upside of that situation was that I also gained a ton of experience from the process and learned a few new things about myself, so in the end, it has also made me grow.
Let’s return to our metaphor of the sapling. Just as the sapling matures into a sturdy oak tree after years of growth, your career path will evolve over time through the sacrifices and trade-offs you make. However, remember that each choice you make should not be seen as a loss but rather an investment toward your goal.
Just as the oak provides shade and support to those under its branches, the skills you acquire, the character you develop, and the success you achieve will benefit not only you but also those around you. Embrace the process, understand the sacrifices, and remember, every great leader was once a sapling, dreaming of becoming a mighty oak.
In the words of American football coach Vince Lombardi, “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.” It’s clear that growth requires sacrifice, but it’s also evident that the payoff is immeasurable. I hope that learning from my experience and the stories I shared in this article would help you grow and see that for yourself.