I have always been interested in learning new things. As a ten-year-old kid I used to listen to stories about college from my older brother. He was a biology major at Iowa State University, and I read all his textbooks. I used to capture and tag birds in my neighborhood and track their behavior in a notebook just like Marlon Perkins did on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom television show. While studying chemical engineering, I took a child psychology class to learn how the human mind evolved. When I was 42 years old, I took a night class on Anthropology while leading a software organization just to learn more about how humans evolved. For as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by learning about our world and personal growth.
I carried this love of learning into adulthood and every decade I try to take on a major learning activity. First was chemical engineering in college, then ten years after that it was an MBA, and 13 years after that it was a Post-Graduate Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from Oxford University. As the global pandemic started to bear down on the world in February 2020, it only seemed natural that I decide to get a PhD and write a leadership book.
I started to investigate what it would take to earn a PhD, I met with several professors from around the country who explained the process to me. They helped me discern not only what I would gain from the experience but also the substantial amount of time and resources I would need to dedicate to the effort. They helped me think through the opportunity cost of doing other things to learn versus the rigors needed to earn a doctoral degree. In the end it was not to be, but the process I went through ended up paying dividends in ways I could not have imagined.
The project of writing a book started with my writing letters to three authors whose books I had read. My simple request was to ask them to serve as my writing coach. Two immediately responded and enthusiastically agreed to help me. Second, I started a public, online survey to gauge others’ interest telling the stories of their own careers.
The response I received was simply overwhelming both in the number of responses and in the depth and sincerity of the experiences described. People wrote about the most impactful events of their lives. They shared who gave them their greatest advice about moments of truth in their careers. They revealed what truly mattered in their careers.
In reading through these responses, I discovered people really wanted to tell their stories.
As my motivation from reading these stories skyrocketed, the project of writing the book itself began to take shape in an unusual way. During my PhD research, I met two professors from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, who became very interested in my project. As I outlined my concept of writing a leadership book based on my personal experience combined with the experience of others, their interest deepened. Over the course of 2020, a partnership formed with Matthew and Jeff to take the book project to the next level. Over the course of several meetings, we arrived at an aligned, shared objective, established mutual goals, and drafted a proposal that ultimately led to our writing this book.
While the goal of attaining a doctoral degree did not come to fruition, it was the process of discerning that goal ultimately led me to my coauthors. I believe meeting Matthew and Jeff was meant to happen and I believe this book was meant to be written.
Our main goal is simple: to help people lead successful careers and live more fulfilling lives.
I hope you enjoy reading this book and will use it as an inspirational guide to take action that will dramatically impact your life in a positive and constructive way. We also encourage you to share your own experiences with others! For more information on how to share your story, please visit the website: www.doingthisrightbooks.com. If you have a question, use the hashtag #AmIDoingThisRight on social media to solicit replies from our learning community. And let us celebrate your triumphs with you by using #IAmDoingThisRight.
Remember, we’re all in this together!
—Tony Thelen
March 2022
Why Did We Write This Book?
This book is designed to help you build the foundation for a successful career and a fulfilling life in the first 10 years of your career. During the early stages of a career, and really throughout our lives, we believe it is normal and healthy to ask, Am I Doing this Right? One of the best investments of your time is to learn from the experience of others. We believe you can use the experience, insights, and lessons others have provided for this book to accelerate your own learning and development.
The aim of this book is to channel energy toward creating your future by giving you advice, tools, and the confidence to grow. Most importantly, we also believe you don’t have to sacrifice a meaningful life to have a successful career: In fact, those two goals are complementary, not conflicting. That single lesson emerges powerfully through every hard-earned experience described within these pages as professionals examine how they have integrated their professional pursuits and personal victories.
Our ambition is that this book will serve as a “personal career desk reference” throughout the transitional time between school and professional life and then into the first years of your career. We hope you refer to these timeless lessons frequently because how you interpret their messages will change over time as your experiences evolve.
As such, take notes in the margins, revisit the chapters, take more notes, and someday hand this book down to others to share your story with them. As you read through the chapters, your voice and your story matter, and as such, we provide prompts for you to jot down insights, goals, and observations that will help you along the way.
While this book draws upon the stories and insights of others, at the end of the day it is a deeply personal book written for you and your life’s story. With that in mind, consider transforming this this book into a journal with your own thoughts, stories, notes, and suggestions. In some ways, we actually believe this book is only half-written; to complete it, you need to add your story!
Book Design and Structure
This book focuses on areas of personal growth in the early stages of your career. When we began our research, we created a very simple survey asking for input from people around the world. The intent was to hear from others about the most important advice they had received and what were the most influential lessons they had learned. We asked questions like:
• What was the best advice you received in your career, and at what time during your career did you receive it (early, mid, late career)?
• What was the best career development tool/aid you found in your career? (e.g., a book, a degree, classroom experience, on-the-job training, etc.)
• What was the biggest problem you ever faced in your career, and how did you resolve it?
• Looking back, would you change anything as far as your career decisions are concerned? If so, what would you have changed and why?
We were overwhelmed by the response. We received amazing and thoughtful replies from over 1,000 leaders all over the world, in all kinds of professions, who wanted to share their hard-earned advice and tell their stories.
We poured over the data and identified dozens of attributes dealing with nearly every aspect of a successful career and fulfilling life. Most people told us the best advice they ever received came early in their career. Like compound interest, receiving great advice early in your life leads to compounding value throughout your professional life. As a result, we began to ask ourselves what was most important to study, learn, and experience early in a career? The answer to this question became the 18 chapters of this book. We have organized the chapters into four sections:
• Who am I?
• Where am I going?
• How do I get there?
• What can I learn along the way?
After sharing an early draft of the book, several reviewers pointed out the critical importance of understanding personal finance early in life and its implications for long-term success. As a result, we added a bonus chapter on financial acumen.
Who Is Speaking?
Think of this book as a literary orchestra with many musicians collaborating to create a work of art. In this spirit, there are four very important “contributors” to this book working in concert, each providing distinct and meaningful perspectives. They are:
• Tony Thelen, who draws upon his 34-year career to share personal experiences and lessons learned.
• Matthew Mitchell and Jeffrey Kappen who bring a wealth of experience from teaching and advising students at Drake University and from their strategy consulting and coaching practice at Bâton Global.
• Shared Words of Wisdom comprised of the stories and insights from hundreds of leaders around the world that provide a broad and deep wealth of experiences and counsel.
So, who is the last contributor? That person is YOU. The act of reading this book is very important. Equally vital is your own reflection. Take the time to collect personal insights and think about your experiences. Finally, it is critical that you become our coauthor and take action to develop your life and career with intention. #BiasTowardAction
Most of this book, apart from the “Shared Wisdom” sections, is written in the first person to create a more personal, one-on-one, conversational tone with the reader. Each chapter starts with a quote to trigger new thinking and prepare you to focus on the topic of the chapter. After a brief introductory paragraph, each chapter has four sections that are designed to make you think deeply about the topic at hand.
1. Tony’s Lessons From Personal Experience: Each chapter begins with one of Tony’s personal stories and lessons learned. The intent of this section is to serve as a consistent narrative throughout the book from a deeply personal perspective. It should get you to think about the issues surrounding the topic of the chapter and reflect how this may impact you and your life.
2. Leading Practices: This section provides concepts, insights, and tools for greater understanding of the topic of the chapter. Matthew and Jeff draw upon their many years of personal and professional consulting and academic experience to help you more fully develop your understanding and skills. Compared to Tony’s more personal stories, Matthew and Jeff take the reader directly into action with best practices.
3. Shared Wisdom: Lessons From the Road: Now that we have heard Tony’s personal story and learned about some leading practices, the next section draws our attention to the experiences of others. What can we learn from the most salient life lessons from others? How does this relate to your life? How can we use what others have learned during their career and integrate their experience to improve our situation? We’ve gleaned the best insights we received from others and provide them for your review and reference. This section serves two key purposes—to inform you on what others have said was most important in their career, and, secondly, to serve as a reference group of professionals who have struggled with the same issues you do. You are joining a community, a process, and a tradition that extends well beyond any one person’s life.
4. Reflections: What’s Your Story?: Finally, each chapter concludes with a direct appeal for you to focus on your story. You’ve read Tony’s story, you’ve reviewed Matthew and Jeff’s leading practices, you’ve reflected upon the insights from others, now it’s time to really get down to business and determine what relevance it all has for you. This section contains reflection questions for deeper meaning and understanding with space to jot down your thoughts. We will ask you to relate the topic to your own experience thus far and at times “nudge” you to act and do something differently in your life. Here is where you become our “coauthor” and make the most out of this book. We highly recommend pausing and reflecting to record your thoughts and then taking time to revisit them as your career progresses.
5. Going Further: Questions, Readings and References: For those of you who want just a little more on the topic of each chapter, check out this section for great discussion questions, suggested readings, and chapter references we have found useful.
It’s important to note that as your life changes, and your priorities and circumstances evolve, the topics of each chapter may take on greater or lesser significance. With this in mind, you may want to read through this book from start to finish, or you may jump to a particular chapter that is highly relevant to your current situation. Either approach works well as each of the book’s chapters is designed to stand on its own.
No matter how you decide to read this book, we recommend that you always keep it handy and refer to the chapters as your thinking and maturity evolve and life experiences change. Revisiting a given chapter a year or more after first reading it may lead to deeper, more personal insights. Remember, our goal is to become the best version of ourselves. President Theodore Roosevelt once remarked in a speech that “Comparison is the thief of joy!” so celebrate your own progress without becoming too distracted by others’. Your story is unique, and the experiences and journey of your life are like no other. While we recognize that our writing is certainly informed by our own backgrounds and experiences, it is our ultimate hope that you use this book to shape your path forward in the pursuit of professional success and a fulfilling life. Let the journey begin!