All careers are made of…
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“Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another.”
― Adam Smith
Not long ago I had an interesting call with a client. This client is currently designing a process to speak to a new kind of market. They are also involved in a larger transaction around current assets. Both are new, disorienting, and challenging.
After that call I went on a bike ride and reflected. I had also done some personal journaling recently, which I referenced on the call as it was relevant to what the client was going through. Here’s a little of the message I sent later that day:
I had this thought: "Careers and organizations are built one deal at a time." There are many different shapes to this. Entrepreneurs need to find the deals, or create systems to do so. But employment is only possible because their organizations make deals in some way shape or form.
All of our work is about deals in some way, shape, or form. Finding them, designing them, pitching them, revising them, and ultimately closing them when the promise of mutual benefit is clear. When we do it over and over we create careers and organizations. Sometimes you do the work that you need to and then it's in their court . That's called the "waiting game". It's an important and uncomfortable part of the cycle. In my journaling I was able to take a retrospective view on exciting deals that forced me to play the waiting game, but created a new normal (next level ) for me, and that's what you're going through too. It's always uncomfortable, but I don't think there's a way around it. Just part of our consignment to "being in time" as Heidegger might say. The closure is more fulfilling on the other side of the discomfort though. Don't know why, but that's the shape of things.
All organizations and careers are built by systemizing deals. We systemize anything that we want to happen reliably and at a consistent level of quality. All organizations grow because we systemize their deals successfully. Once we get good at this we find stability. Then we grow bored and dissatisfied with the new level and look for bigger, more exciting deals to close. We start by stubbing our toes, learning the ropes. In time we systemize those too. The waiting game becomes more tolerable, but it’s very difficult the first couple times. I’ve been selling music lessons for 15 years - I don’t feel the waiting game for that at all. Some seasons of the year actually have 10 different waiting games happening at the same time, but because it’s systemized and predictable, I don’t feel it the same way I once did.
If I was building a new music program, something special and elite, more expensive and with a different service, I would feel the waiting game much differently. But in time that would become systemized and reliable too.
Some of us build organizations, and some of us serve within them. But it’s all deals. And we all wait. Every phone call, email, and text message is a deal in search of some kind of agreement. Some are easy, some are more challenging. Everyone knows what it’s like to nervously wait for a response and do a little extra persuasion to get the deal to the finish line.
All careers and organizations are built through deals. One after the other. And when we systemize the process we build reliable consistency and quality, which forms the foundation for our next level of success. When we get comfortable there we can either choose to stay, or ascend to a higher level with deals of a different shape that we must learn and systemize.
But it’s all deals. Every career and organization (organizations contain many careers and careers contribute to many organizations) are built deal by deal. Always and forever. It’s the shape of human life.
How is your deal flow? Is it taking you to a higher level? I can help: https://aaronjmarx.com/talk-to-aaron