On the first day of a new job early in my career, I met someone in my department who was leaving for another opportunity. Before he walked out the door, he pulled me aside and gave me some of the best career advice I’ve ever received:
“This is a great place, and you are going to learn a lot. But the moment you stop learning, it’s time to move on.”
He was right.
As I approached three years with that company, the learning curve began to flatten. My role had become more routine. The stretch was gone. His words came back to me, and I started asking myself a simple but unsettling question:
What’s next?
“What’s next?” is deceptively complex. For me, it led to more questions than answers. The loudest one was this:
What do I want?
A higher salary?
Equity?
Flexibility?
Geographic freedom?
As I wrote those questions down, I realized I was circling something deeper:
What does success actually look like for me?
Once I defined that, “next” became clearer. Not detailed. Not perfectly mapped out. But directional.
That clarity changed everything.
Your ideal future — in your career, your company, or your life — should determine your next step. Too often, we chase opportunity without defining destination.
As George Harrison wrote in “Any Road”:
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
Before you take the next step, pause long enough to answer the harder question:
Where are you actually trying to go?
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