A quick note on yesterday’s piece. If you’re like me and can’t get enough Curry content, this was an excellent piece on Steph from Marcus Thompson II at The Athletic, and here is another one from Dan Devine at The Ringer. The 30 point streak is over, but we can still enjoy some great content. On to today’s entry.
A friend and I were recently chatting about my time at Amazon over text, and it prompted him to ask me a very valid question: Why did you leave?
It’s a question I think about now and again.
I was 27, a PM at Amazon, making more money than I could have ever imagined, doing necessary and impactful work for the Last Mile Tech team within Amazon Logistics. In retrospect, leaving Amazon may seem like a bad decision. However, it may be easier to understand my decision once you learn the concept of ikigai.
Ikigai is a Japanese word, which is comprised of ‘iki’ which means “to live” and ‘gai’ which means reason. The idea behind ikigai is to be motivated and find a sense of purpose in life by doing what you’re good at, what you love, what society will pay you, and what the world needs. It is best visualized by the following diagram:
At Amazon, I was doing work that I was getting paid for, and I was pretty good at it. However, I did not love my work. Something was missing. So, I was motivated to find more fulfilling work. How do you go about doing this?
In So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport argues against following your passion:
The passion hypothesis is not just wrong, it’s also dangerous. Telling someone to “follow their passion” is not just an act of innocent optimism, but potentially the foundation for a career riddled with confusion and angst…what you produce is basically all that matters. If you spend too much time focusing on whether or not you’ve found your true calling, the question will be rendered moot when you find yourself out of work.
Newport is not necessarily arguing against ikigai. Rather, I believe he is saying it is most important to identify the “what you are good at” circle first. Once that happens, you will inevitably find love from it and be paid for it.
To construct work you love, you must first build career capital by mastering rare and valuable skills, and then cash in this capital for the type of traits that define compelling careers. Mission is one of those traits.
The hard part I’m having is figuring out what the rare and valuable skill I have is. This is often easier (or, at least clearer) for specialists, but more challenging for generalists. Product management is a cross-disciplinary field by nature.
Why did you leave?
I have been exploring the question again now. Could it be that I was chasing passion to no avail like Newport said? Did I make a mistake leaving Amazon? Does it make sense to return to a big company like Amazon, and work at what I’m good at until I find love?
What if I’m not being honest with myself about what I’m good at? Do I know this deep down but am afraid of admitting it? Or what if the rare skill is something I haven’t yet discovered? Could it be something outside of product management? Could that be the key to my ikigai—to finding my sense of purpose?
More questions than answers for now.
being vulnerable enough to ask these difficult questions is more meaningful than finding answers for them. the answers will come with time, more career experimentation, and continued introspection, ;)