Career Advice from Randy Komisar

Randy Komisar is a good guy. He’s a Silicon Valley CEO. Listening to him speak is like being sat down by your down-to-earth uncle, who wants to give you career advice. Komisar is good at giving interesting advice about ‘following your passion’ without sounding trite or overly motivational. A lot of us get stuck on questions like “what is my (one) passion in life?!” Rather than worrying about the right answer to that question, he recommends thinking of your passions as a portfolio of interests. Then just try to match your interests to the opportunities in front of you. As long as you’re moving in the right direction you’re getting there.

(If you only have time to watch one of these, watch the first one).

In this second video, Komisar discusses staying balanced. The balance changes as your priorities change. He talks about money, opportunity and power (the 3 things people always wish they had in the career) don’t always come in the same package. We need to be careful that our career doesn’t take up too much of our lives and sometimes it’s worth it to say, sacrifice money and power in order to increase opportunities.

He also suggests that we should never put ourselves in a situation where we can’t say no, by handcuffing ourselves to too many obligations (i.e. having too many time or money expenses). Keep your eye on the ball (your values) and, as much as possible, give yourself the freedom to make the changes that respect the balance.

Reality check: When Komisar cut back in his life he went from being a full-time CEO to a doing part-time-CEO-temping. He made heaps of money as a CEO and, when he cut back, he made slightly-smaller heaps, but still probably more than you and me and everyone who will ever read this post combined. It’s easier making financial sacrifices when doing so doesn’t mean you’ll have to make any real sacrifices at all.

Still, I think he’s giving us some good advice here.

Randy Komisar’s book is The Monk and the Riddle: The Education of a Silicon Valley Entrepreneur.

mograaf

I had a great comment and then it got erased! Dammit!
So I'll try to paraphrase it again.

Both videos are excellent and I highly recommend that anybody viewing this watch both. The first one makes an excellent point: don't worry so much about what the final "destination" or outcome of your life will be, worry more about what opportunities you are presented with now, and choose one of them. You can become paralyzed and end up doing nothing if you always try to focus on an end result. (and I'm sure there are tons of advice-givers out there that would disagree - but I think he has an excellent point). Tim says if you only have time, watch the 1st video. I disagree. The 2nd video is much more important for general life-happiness. It stresses that the only way to really achieve this is through balance. This is one thing I remember my father telling me since I've been 5. You need balance in your life. Too much of anything is bad. You need happiness & sadness, work & play, exercise & rest. And as Randy points out, too much money won't do you any good if you don't have time to enjoy it now. Not that we should all expect to be dead next week, but if we knew we were going to die, would you look back from this point and say that you had balance so far? Very interesting and thought-provoking stuff. One of my personally favourite parts of video 2 is near the end when Randy comments on balance including surrounding yourself with people who know you, who share your values and enjoy your company. I like his scientist friend that keeps him grounded - who has no idea what Randy's job is, what his status is, etc. He doesn't care, he's just a friend.

Tim Woods

That's my favourite part of the second video as well, when he talks about his friend who isn't the least bit impressed by him or what he does for a living. I'm happy to say that I have a good group of friends who have never been impressed by me either. :-)