A friend of mine called recently and said that he needed some career advice.

He was wondering whether to stay in his corporate job and try and get promoted or bite the bullet and go it alone. His main concern was being in control and not putting his eggs in one basket.

I asked him a simple question: for you, is career a verb or a noun?

“What do you mean?” he asked.

I explained that a career is either something you have (a noun) or something you do (a verb). You are either looking to improve your career or change the way that that you career through your work.

After a few examples and nudges, he got it - I was suggesting that by labelling it as a career, there was a notion of being out of control - the way that a car careers on icy roads.

Entrepreneurs rarely talk about their careers. They may discuss businesses, start ups, ventures or work but they don’t usually think of themselves as having a career. I think that’s because they don’t want to feel as though anybody else is in control of their direction but themselves.

Careers are associated with corporate organisations and hierarchies and proving oneself to more senior people. When you start to do that, you must acknowledge that you’re no longer in control of your destination. The people you’re trying to influence are in control.

My personal belief and my recommendation to my friend is this…

If you treat your career as an object, you’ll always be looking for it. You’ll also wind up trying to convince other people to give it to you. That’s not a useful way to use your time and energy.

If you treat your career as an activity, you’ll realise that it’s important to take control yourself and begin to 'career' in the right direction (just like you would if your car began to skid).
If you do this, you’ll start to make different decisions and get more of what you want. Use your energy doing the things you need to do rather than convincing others to give you what you want.