If you want to stand out, keep your head down
Or, a short time of laying low can pay off for the rest of your career
“Dad! Dad! I saw Red!”
It was the third time that day my boy Liam screamed that he’d seen a little red fish swim out from under the rock he’d been standing on.
I thought for sure he was joking or the sun had begun to blur his five-year-old vision. But not two minutes later, just as I told him it was time to go home for dinner, the little guy peeked his head out from under the rock, and to my surprise, Red wasn’t only red, but fire-engine red.
The next day, despite knowing the odds of seeing the same fish twice in a pool as large as the Meditteranean weren’t exactly high, Liam packed up his gear, trudged down to this spot, perched himself on the same rock, and went to work.
It took a little longer this time, but after a few hours of keeping his eyes glued to the plot of sea in front of him, Red showed his face again. On the third day, the exact same thing happened.
In the end, after 28 days with nothing except a bucket and a $2 net, Liam scared away every seagull in a fifty-three-kilometer radius when he screamed — “Dad! Dad! It’s Red! I caught Red!”
Watching a five-year-old for close to a month standing on a rock for well over one hundred hours trying out new techniques again and again was pretty impressive. In fact, I think it’s the best lesson in that sweet mix of patience and persistence I’ve witnessed.
But what really blew me away was after a year’s hiatus, we returned to the same spot, and Red, or maybe his cousin, came out from under the same rock, and after two hours of waiting, Liam got caught him.
“That kid is good!” an older kid said as he admired Liam’s full buckets of twelve crabs and seven other fish including Red. “Yeah!” another one replied, “He’s really good!”
The world is only as loud as you allow it to be.
As a career coach and university lecturer, I work with a lot of people who ask how they can get ahead. I used to give them all sorts of fancy advice. However, in today’s loud world, my advice is much simpler: steal a line from Liam and identify one skill you’d like to improve, carve out a few hours a day of dedicated focus, and do it until you’re no longer bad at it.
In fact, when I look back over my career, everything good that has come out of it is thanks to putting my head down and blocking out the noise.
When I was 23, I took a sales job despite having a severe speech impediment to gain some confidence and improve my communication skills. I was told if I made 100 calls a day, I’d make 100K. Twelve months later, after making 120 calls a day and breaking into the Top Ten of a salesforce of more than eleven, I was promoted to manage people twice my age. “If you can do it, anyone can do it!” the CEO said. “I want every person in the office to see that!”
The same thing happened when I began writing. In addition to getting in my private reps, I worked with professional editors to teach me how to write well, made friends with other writers, and edited at least an article a day for free from someone else. Despite raising two young kids and doing the work that paid the bills, within 18 months of carving out time for focused practice, I’d reached the point where my writing could support my family.
As someone who stutters with off-the-charts ADHD and various learning disabilities that jumbles not only his thoughts but also his words, I feel quite confident in saying I wasn’t blessed with solid sales or writing skills. But permitting myself to be bad at something until I began to get better has allowed me to not have a boss for the last fifteen years while living all over the globe doing the work I like with people I love.
I’m not a productivity expert and don’t pretend to be one online.
I also don’t use any apps to track my progress. Just like how Liam prioritized only a bucket and net, my notebook and pen are my go-to tools. That being said, there are a few things that have made my life easier when it comes to doing the work that matters.
Commit to one year of dedicated practice on one skill. If it’s writing, don’t waste a second of your time on Twitter or LinkedIn. You’ll know you’re improving when other people start sharing your work.
Whenever Tim Urban, creator of Wait but Why, needs to get work done, he stands on a step stool, places his phone on a high shelf, and then puts the stool in another room. His reasoning: The effort it takes to access these distractions is just as unappealing as working — so he works. Together with buying coffee at Starbucks, few things kill more dreams than smartphones so learn how to manage yours or take a hammer to it.
Make a list of how you think your life will change by getting good at just one thing and why it’s so important to you before hanging the list somewhere you see it every day.
Schedule time for each day of the week on Sunday night before adding anything else to your calendar to practice this skill. It could be an hour. It could be two. It could be fifteen minutes. Consistency trumps duration.
When I was starting my career, my dad said perhaps the most important thing he’s ever said to me regarding my work —
“The odds are high you’re going to be working for 50 years which means each year represents just two percent of your career.”
He then went on to tell me to not worry about what everyone else is doing and commit to getting good at something as one year of hard work will make the remaining years much easier. From my experience, he was dead right. The skill of making fast connections with people and learning how to share personal stories that resonate will never go out of style.
The world is loud.
Everyone today is vying for attention.
Most people are looking for fast results.
If you want to have a successful career, a solid piece of advice is to look at what other people are doing and do the opposite.
Fortunately, the way to do that is simple: just follow the advice of my dad and the actions of Liam and put your head down, block out the noise, and make a commitment to get good.
If you liked this topic and don’t want to hoot and holler to get attention, you may get a lot out of my book —
Shy by Design: 12 Timeless Principles to Quietly Stand Out
Here’s what Cal Newport (New York Times best-selling author of Deep Work and Slow Productivity) had to say about it —
“In a world that lionizes loudness, it's actually the quiet and shy among us who are best set up to thrive. Thompson provides an important new way of understanding what it really takes to stand out!”
Thank you for reading.
My very best to you and yours.
—Michael
"The world is loud.
Everyone today is vying for attention.
Most people are looking for fast results.
If you want to have a successful career, a solid piece of advice is to look at what other people are doing and do the opposite."
I have a theory that the bubble is bursting on all that extroverted attention and promises for fast results. The true magick lives in the slow and steady tortoise pace, like Liam's Hunt for the Red Fish, instead of the quick fix of the hare's race.
I've spent my entire life doing the opposite of what everyone else does, and not quite understanding why. Thanks for making this crystal clear for me. Gonna keep doing me, my way.
Liam is truly Yoda-esque. At such a young age, he’s already discovered that patience, stillness, and listening bring their own rewards. We often think that the loudest voices get all the luck, but learning to be quiet and listen is one of the greatest investments we can make—especially in the modern workforce. How lucky you are that he could teach you. As my editor, you bring me incredible insights, grounded and wise. Now I can see where that wisdom comes from—thanks to Liam. 😉😜 🧑💻✍️