Learn Earn Return

That's your career plan right there. Just three stages. Learn. Earn. Return

Stage One: Learn Get out there and hustle. In your job make learning a priority. Use your curiosity to ask about the what, the why and the how of what your company, unit, function and role are tasked with. Always be curious, ask questions, find ways to gently challenge assumptions. Get insight. Connect the dots. Network (another form of learning) relentlessly. Every role helps you build your skill stack, broadens your network

Stage Two: Earn After Learn comes Earn, here is where you leverage your skill stack, your network, the dots you have connected (aka insights) and use them to attain the roles you seek, to increase your income and improve the skills through the results you achieve

Stage 3: Return After Earn, you have a chance to Return - to contribute to the development of new hires, to early career colleagues, to the up and coming hi, medium and average potentials. In the return phase, you coach, you mentor, you share advice, your experience and provide an ear to help those around you develop.

And what I find in each stage, both the other stages are nested in it too - just with a different level of focus. For example, when you are learning, you are also earning - earning the right to the next plum project or earning the right to be called up; As you earn, you continue to learn and; As you return, the sharing is also a mechanism for your earning and your continued learning.

No matter your stage - Learn, Earn or Return - practice all three and lift those around you and see how satisfying, and beneficial, they can be!