In this letter
Ted's career lesson
Are you sitting by the career pond, waiting for the perfect opportunity to bite? It's time to put down that fishing rod and pick up your bow.
Hunting vs Fishing
I give full credit for this game-changing insight to my coach, Julian Chender of 11A Collaborative. During one of our sessions, as I walked him through some job listings I'd been reviewing, he stopped me mid-sentence: "You realize you're fishing when you need to be hunting, right?"
Cue the confused dog head tilt from me. But once he explained it, everything made sense. Let me walk you through this game-changing shift from passive fisher to strategic hunter.
When you're fishing for opportunities, you're sitting and scrolling through job postings, picking them apart and waiting for the perfect role to magically appear. You're casting your line with hope, waiting patiently on the riverbank for something to swim by. This isn't the cool kind of fishing you'd imagine, with waders and fancy lures. It's more like sitting on the riverbank with a worm on a hook, hoping something swims by. It leaves you reactive and at the mercy of whatever happens to cross your path.
When you're hunting for opportunities, you're strategic and proactive. You study your target—the companies, roles, and people that align with your goals. You learn their habits, their challenges, their language. You position yourself where they'll notice you. You don't wait for the perfect job posting; you create conversations that lead to opportunities before they're posted.
Our ancestors didn't survive by hoping deer would wander into camp. They tracked, they planned, they used every tool at their disposal to ensure success. They even invented turkey calls to draw their prey closer. That's the energy we need to bring to our careers.
My hunting season begins
Some of you know I recently experienced what others might call a professional setback. I prefer to see it as a liberation—a chance to step away from a less-than-ideal situation and hunt for what's truly next.
Will this next opportunity look exactly like what I envisioned three years ago? Absolutely not. Will it be the first thing that crosses my path? I hope not—because I'm committed to finding something better. Will it be a perfect fit for who I've become and where I want to contribute? It will if I hunt strategically.
So I'm activating my network, having conversations with people I should have stayed in touch with long ago, keeping my mind open to unexpected possibilities, and diving deep into what makes me uniquely valuable.
You're a unicorn too
Every one of us has a unique combination of experiences, skills, and strengths that demands we find opportunities that don't just pay the bills but allow us to flourish. Your particular confluence of influences and abilities is unlike anyone else's —and that's your competitive advantage.
So instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity to land on your hook, go out and hunt for the opportunity that will let you shine in ways you didn't even know were possible.
You might be surprised by what you discover.
Ready to start hunting?
Three ways to start hunting today:
- Activate your network. Reach out to someone you haven't spoken with in a while—you never know what exciting doors they might open.
- Be proactive. Don't just wait for job postings. Make a list of organizations you admire and find creative ways to connect with them now.
- Stay open. The right opportunity may look different than what you pictured, but it might be even better than you imagined. Be ready to recognize it when it shows up in a different form.
Happy hunting,
Ted
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