Welcome to the new members of The Break!
If you like what you’ve been reading follow along on Twitter ( @mngardon ) and LinkedIn for more community and conversations about breaking work.
If you're listening to this, we'd love a review! Head on over to Apple Podcasts and let us know how we're doing, or hit that like and subscribe buttons on youtube :)
Looking for a new job or looking to hire in 2023?
Start with ZipRecruiter today to find the best opportunities and candidates out there. I'm proud to partner with this award winning company to bring you this newsletter absolutely free.
Looking for inspiring real world tacticians to learn from?
Subscribe to The Break podcast . Each week you'll get this newsletter in audio format, plus monthly long form interviews with top creators, entrepreneurs and other Career Breakers who have put work in its place and designed lives of freedom and control.
Lies, Damn Lies and Excuses
Of all the excuses I hear for why people don’t get out of a bad job, here is the #1:
“I’ve already put so much into this path. It would be stupid to quit.”
They say, but what about:
“my title”
“my training”
“my education”
“my credentials”
“my benefits”
If that’s you, buckle up for some harsh truth.
All those excuses are LIES.
Your “thinking brain” is lying to you, by committing a logical error.
It’s a big f-ing problem, that needs to get fixed right now.
It’s called the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
Here’s what it is:
The Sunk Cost Fallacy describes our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits.
Hey, we all make mistakes, but continuing on a bad path isn’t a way to success, it’s a certain path to misery.
I learned about sunk costs the hard way as a trader.
I learned that if I stubbornly stuck to my trade and ADDED to it, even as the market was moving against me, I would most likely lose big. Better to take a small loss and re-evaluate because throwing good money after bad on a trade that isn’t working is a great way to go broke.
Even after learning that painful lesson, I still didn’t “get it” outside of investing.
I still continued trading as my career path even though I was miserable, depressed and anxious.
I was one of those guys who thought I could never quit something.
I was invested in my career, and I was determined to make it a success, or die trying. Literally. That was my self talk, I thought it was totally ok if I died of a heart attack in my chair at 28 years old if it meant that I didn’t quit!
That’s not a good and fulfilling path. That’s INSANE!!
Why continue on that path, and sacrifice my future years of happiness?
It’s irrational because as human beings, we have SO many more options than we think we have.
Luckily, I said F-that to the hours of study and blood, sweat and tears I put into succeeding at trading.
Luckily, I stopped adding time and energy to that losing trade, and I BROKE that path, and started building a better future.
How to combat the sunk cost fallacy
Learn to recognize it. At a basic level, everything you’ve done in the past: every dollar, every minute, every action is “sunk”. When you find yourself saying thinks like “how can I make it worth it”, “but what about”, or “I just need to get back to even” you’re probably succumbing to the sunk cost fallacy.
Focus on the next thing. When evaluating a decision now, only your next dollar, minute, action is relevant. Base your decision on that. Just because you went got a master’s degree in teaching doesn’t mean you need to spend your next single minute as a teacher if you hate it.
Ask, what am I willing to give up to get what I want? Most clinging to sunk costs is based on fear. Understanding what you are willing to give up in order to get what you want is a very helpful question. Are you willing to let your credentials expire? What about your title?
Ask, how might I leverage my sunk costs to turn them into advantages on a new path? Just because something in your past is “sunk” doesn’t mean it’s not an asset that can be useful. What are the things you’re clinging to that could be used in a novel way on your new path? I know a financial advisor who has kept up his credentials even though he doesn’t manage client money anymore. His credentials give him credibility for his blog and his news appearances, which now net him way more than his financial planning business.
Cutting the sunk cost anchor
In long term games like trading and life, the differentiator between winners and losers isn’t those who are never wrong, its those who minimize their pain or loss when they inevitably make a mistake, and win big when they are right.
The great news is you only have to be right big once in your life.
The bad news is you likely need to be wrong small a few times to figure out what “right” is.
What could you be, if you cut the weight of your sunk costs?
Hanging on prevents us from changing our mind, recognizing our potential, adapting, and ultimately achieving success.
Letting go of that anchor is how you live in the future.
The current decision is about your incremental effort. Your next dollar. Your next minute.
Is the path you are on still worth your precious resources? Or should you direct them elsewhere?
See you next week!
Mike
3 ways I can help you:
1. Book a free Intro To Advantage Mapping coaching call . In this 30 minute, no obligation call, we'll get you executing on a high odds career path by leveraging your natural advantages and Circle of Competence.
2. Find your new job! Remote tech jobs curated for you. Follow me on Pallet .
3. Get in the Breaking Work conversation on Linkedin. Messages are open. Follow me here .
The Break Job Board
I teamed up with Pallet to create a curated job board for our community ! These jobs are tech focused, remote first opportunities. I’d love it if you followed. Maybe, just maybe you’ll find your next big opportunity here.
Here are a few featured opportunities:
TestGorilla: Product Manager (Remote)
Hey Jane: Head of Marketing
Geisinger: Compensation Analyst Intermediate
BeyondTrust: Senior Product Manager
Also, If you’re looking to support the community and have a job to post, you can do so by clicking the ‘ Post a Job’ button.
What’s happening on the pod?
Jennie Blumenthal is the founder of Corporate Rehab where she coaches executives to re-engineer their relationship with work to grow in their current career or in a new opportunity.
Jennie’s “break moment” came in the midst of Covid with kids at home and huge responsibilities at her consulting job. Like a lot of us, she got some space to re-evaluate and realized the amazing career she built over 20 years overseeing 250 employees and consulting with some of the biggest and best Fortune 500 companies in the world still wasn’t utilizing her skills talents, and energy in the ways she wanted. So she put herself through her own Corporate Rehab. Check out her story, it’s a good one.
You made it to the end! Hopefully you learned something about breaking your career today! If so, please share this with someone you care about.
P.S. What did you think of today's email? Click one of the ratings below to send us your feedback. We'd love to know what you think!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was super helpful! ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Could be better. ⭐️ This one needs work!