kissing ass, quantum leaps, and the power of being unqualified

 
 

(Disclaimer: this vocational approach does not apply to heart surgeons, shrinks, or pharmacists. Or the guys who engineer bridges.)

I took a survey last week looking for "unqualified successes," trolling for crackerjack people who bypassed the diploma, the pecking order, or the security guard to get to the top of their game. Here's what we surfaced:

The Top 30 College Drop Outs Who Made It Big In Business list, which includes: billionaires Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Steve Jobs - who, by the way, took a Calligraphy class in college...and then dropped out.

Jimi Hendrix couldn't read music. Rachel Ray never went to cooking school.

Colleen in Calgary sent me this great list: John Fluevog went from working in a shoe store to his own shoe empire. Vera Wang was a fashion writer, and of course there was Coco Chanel, who had no formal training. And this was my favourite client story from Tanya in New York, she "traded risk management software to Investment Banks and on Wall Street...with only a fashion design diploma from South Africa." Yah.

Me? I'm The Poster Chick for Unqualified. I never went to college - except when I was in diapers. My mother, being eighteen when she had me, took me to school with her so she could complete her degree. I doodled in psych text books and played with my dollies in the back of the class. You could say I got my B.A. by osmosis. Maybe on a cellular level, I drew on my toddler days at St. Claire College when I formed my own communications company (representing a few Nobel Laureates and some old pop stars,) and managed a fancy think tank in Washington DC (stacked with PhDs). To be clear: I juuust made it the Right Side of the Tracks, and then ran like hell.

One of the best inadvertent decisions I made was to not go to university. I never had a box to get out of. And yah, yah, higher education partially makes the world go round, but I did what was best for me personally. I just couldn't see the necessity of school. I wanted to be in the world - asap.

6 1/2 WAYS TO BUCK THE SYSTEM, WALK THROUGH WALLS, AND EARN QUALIFICATIONS ON YOUR OWN TERMS

1. Kiss some ass. Yep, you can bypass The System, but there are no short cuts to initiation. You are going to have to smile, make coffee, drive that package to the airport with no gas in your car to get it on the FedEx airplane on time, and then race back to clean up after the party.

1 1/2. Kiss some more ass. Offer to work unpaid for two weeks. Give your ideas away for free - chances are you'll be asked to execute those ideas. If your ideas get hijacked, it will push you to learn that you've got more where that came from. If you're hungry enough, you will innovate.

2. Learn through obsession bordering on crazy-stalker. Immerse yourself in the culture of your choice. Swim in the industry. Eat information whole. Subscribe to every newsletter, read every book, attend every conference.

3. Take people for lunch, ask questions ceaselessly. Risk being annoying - it usually comes off as charmingly eager. Ask: what they're reading, what they'd do if they were you, where they see things going, the best advice they ever received. Keep in touch.

4. Get in over your head. Can you deliver within fours weeks? Just say yes, immediately. It doesn't matter that you don't have a staff, let alone a business card. Accept the mission and then figure out how to make it possible. Where there's a yes, there's a doorway.

5. Present yourself as…You. You can fake qualified here 'n there, but you cannot fake passion, essence or originality - and those are the exact qualities that fuel quantum leaps and barrier-obliteration.

6. Look super fine. If you don't think style matters, then you should probably go get a diploma and play by the rules.


EXTRA-CISE: Consider your dreams (the job, the gig, the love of your life). Write out:
: 5 reasons why your dream is ­unreasonable or the odds are stacked against you;
: 10 passions or beliefs;
: 5 persuasive, potentially outrageous actions that will create forward traction.

Then kiss mediocrity goodbye and prepare to move to the front of the line. Muwah!



If you want to SEE me wax philosophical about this, you can watch my CBC TV segment from Connect With Mark Kelley.

join the convoposted 8 Dec 09 in: business + wealth articles   ·   tags: ,   ·   View Comments

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  • How to be successful despite not having the credentials
  • This rocks, Danielle. I get clients constantly that say that they don't want to go back to school & therefore "can't" pursue the career that they're passionate about, & I call BS on them constantly. If you love law, let's say, yet you don't want to go to law school, then how else can you be involved in that world & utilize your skills? I'm convinced there's a way to do it if there's enough brainstorming & out-of-the-box thinking around it.
  • Laura Cococcia
    Love it! And here I am, considering going back to get another graduate degree this year only to "prove" I have credibility in an area. But perhaps I should give it some thought about how to get that "credibility" in a more unconventional way...and have a hell of a lot more fun doing it. Good food for thought...
  • I read this and realized that I subscribed to that opinion that you need a BS degree to get anywhere in life. I only have my associates degree, and there are times right now that I feel unqualfied for any of the jobs out there. And yes I agree that being eager is charming in your 20's, but once you hit your 40's it does not look so good. I am 44 and I don't think I can do the "eager beaver" bit anymore...lol
  • @julie_k
    This was perfect timing. I quit my incredibly comfy job today - to leap headlong into the chaos that is my industry and emerge new before I just become old.

    If we wait til we are "qualified" we might wait forever.
    now!
  • you did it? you did it! corks popping. Here's to 2010!
  • What would you say to someone who reads this "to-do" list and thinks, somewhat cynically, "Who has the energy?" Am I in the wrong industry? Am I surrounding myself with the wrong people? Am I just an introvert? Do I have the wrong attitude? What can I do to right it? I have to admit, I want your enthusiasm; mine has dwindled and I'm rationing it out, afraid I might run out at any moment.
  • Hmmm- I love this- I have done both- the traditional ass busting Doctore route (MD and Pathology sspecialty training 13yrs total- quite satisfying and nice starting salary. Now doing Interior Decoration/Inspirational Vlogging without any formal training (except life long obsession with dollhouses and self help genre-)- result- SUCESS! I think the enthusiasm even works when you are not that young (me = 42) as that is when I entered the Decor arena (albeit I had an established biz partner.- who is by the way SELF- TRAINED)- I would add to your liSt - "Give it away for a while!"- you will get a supportive tribe to build the biz.
  • mochamama
    As a now single working mama in my early 40s, I have to tell you--I did the quitting college and following what I wanted to do. It earned me a rather hard life on an economic level. Mind you, I think what has made this most difficult is my fear level since becoming a mother 10 years ago.

    In spite of everything I was warned not to do 20 years ago...I worked for social service agencies and discovered I loved people but didn't love people *like that*, I lived and worked at a commune in the mountains and got to experience my labor influencing if my peers had water available, I trained as an auto mechanic and discovered I have a problem solving mind, I took a fluke chance on a job in South America and discovered that I love to function as a type of translator, bridging gaps...I stopped and started several training programs, dropped out a bunch, traveled a bunch, fell and skinned my knees a great deal...

    This may sound crazy, but I think the most radical thing I could do now in my early 40s is actually get a law degree and put my natural inclination to research, debate, problem solve, translate and be with people to good use.

    Mind you--I truly don't regret the things I've done. But it's not been a terribly easy path, largely due to my own internal fear. I've enjoyed the writings here at the site.
  • tomorrow, i will risk being annoying. thanks for the nudge, i need it.
  • How I started doing the freelance work I love to do is that a few clients demanded that I take on huge projects for them before I felt I was "ready". Good thing I didn't listen to my own BS, and just did a big ol' #4!! And loved it. And succeeded.And got bills paid! RE: #1 and #1.5 -- I totally love having my own butt kissed so I'm not afraid to happily do it to deserving others. It comes around... this is a GREAT post and I'm off to share it with others. Thanks so much. ONWARD!
  • Thank you for posting on this topic. In my life I've followed a lot of rules so far. It's all "fine" and "ok" but not inspirational nor has it dropped me off at where I now know my passion lies. I don't have regrets...it took all that to get me to what I know now.

    But reading your posting reminds me A) It's not too late to shift gears and; B) I can do so without stacking up a bunch of "official" credentials. It's all about Action. Action. Action. :)
  • LOVE THIS POST. I dropped out of college after a semester because I didn't see it helping me much and it just felt too much like high school all over again (I hated high school, with a fiery fiery passion). Maybe if I'd gone to a "better" school it'd have been different, who knows - all I know is that I think the attitude we have in America that going to college is a MUST for succeeding at anything is kind of wacky. If I had stayed in college, I'd be graduating next year or the year after with less life experience than I have now and anywhere from $40k-80k in debt. I'm glad I went the way I did.

    I probably need to get better at #3, I'm always worried that I'm annoying people by asking questions/taking up their time! And I love #6. Great advice. ;)
  • better-than-good. i did go to college (self-imposed obligation to be the first in both family trees), and damn near got kicked out - i'm not kidding, but wish i were - when i dared give a speech profiling successful people who had NOT attended college. professor and other students couldn't understand why i would spend my time researching such a topic; i still can't understand why they shunned independent thinking and pure, unadulterated passion. (altho' maybe they were passionate about not having to think for themselves. i dunno.)
  • most of my favourite people got kicked out of school or meditation retreats.
  • Yeah! I needed this and I'm fighting it. Your words+(my action-my resistance) = next steps for kick-ass personal growth.
  • I love this because it speaks to the real me. I got caught up in the standard path and the "right thing to do" as many of us can. After years of being on auto-pilot, I finally woke up and realised that I had literally forgotten what my dreams had been. Starting over has been painful and removing myself from the circumstances I've built around me is hard and sloooow but I know it will be worth it. I still do toy with the idea of "going back to school." Some things speak to me but I think I can do it on my own without a piece of paper declaring I can. I know I can, I just need to put myself out there and show people I've got IT.

    xoxo
  • Today, Danielle, I'm calling you TripleFox! (your version of triple threat is: smile, zing, kapow!) You've got the effervescent smile that opens the gates, the rocking content the fuels the EXPLOSION of what's good in the world. Thank you for rocking the CBC gig and sharing this with us. Seth: I disagree, if you are a risktaker without apologetic energy, it works at every age. Even 23 year olds are cloying if they come with tail btw legs. Go forth, tails high, everyone.
  • This is very well put. I will be putting this information to work right soon.
  • Love, love #4 - I do that all the time, and people think I am crazy, but it works! We refer to it in my circle of friends, as how to do your own dental work in 6 easy steps...all you need is a purpose/goal, and the motivation, and everything else is easy -- great encouragement!
  • Oh Miss Danielle... this comes at such a perfect time! For years now I subscribed to the notion of doing things "inside the box", if you will. I attempted all the things that my parents believed would see me to "success" and, as a result, I believed would lead me to success as well. Long story short, and disregarding various complexities and personal nuances, it didn't work. I am now coming into the very light that you address here and it is food for my soul! Thanks for your cosmic timing, m'dear.
  • ditto love. You and me both. We need a cupcake + coffee date to chat about it me thinks. xoxo
  • It's a good list with some action steps...one caveat I think:

    Many of these strategies will have a diminishing return as you grow older. For example "Risk being annoying - it usually comes off as charmingly eager." Far easier to get away with that at 23 vs. 43.
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