Career Pivot Quotes

Want to make waves in the business world? Then you gotta be bold, take risks, and always be ready to pivot.

Throwing your heart into something is great, but when any one thing becomes all that you stand for, you're vulnerable to an identity crisis when you pivot to a Plan B.

Okay, so there’s just you. Your goals, your career, your crew, your prospects, and your God. All together, chillin’. Before the house, the apartment, the kids, the boyfriend, the wedding, the night you crossed over with your frat brothers, there’s that pivotal point of asking your heart, “Who am I, really? What do I really like? Do I want to change for someone else? Is my soul mate right now, somewhere, finishing this sentence and completing my thoughts?

And at that pivotal moment, the University of Tennessee came calling. So did forensic anthropology. My career as “Indian grave-robber number one” was over. My true vocation—as a forensic scientist—was about to begin.

Whenever we revisit the dog-eared pages within our personal histories, we’ve all experienced Kokura’s luck (though, hopefully, on a less consequential scale). When we consider the what-if moments, it’s obvious that arbitrary, tiny changes and seemingly random, happenstance events can divert our career paths, rearrange our relationships, and transform how we see the world. To explain how we came to be who we are, we recognize pivot points that so often were out of our control. But what we ignore are the invisible pivots, the moments that we will never realize were consequential, the near misses and near hits that are unknown to us because we have never seen, and will never see, our alternative possible lives. We can’t know what matters most because we can’t see how it might have been.

Swimming in your own lane, or finding your genius, is about first spending the time to go deep within, before stepping out again and crafting a strategy to navigate the world as yourself, PROUD, yet textured by the nuances of the society and communities you live in.

It is well know that it is career suicide for any person in Hollywood to be explicitly conservative. If they share any perspective that pivots away from liberal orthodoxy, they are accused of racism and branded a nazi. If they are black, they are accused of insanity.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “I’m convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, the nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin to shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society…. When machines and computers, profit models and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” The context in which Martin Luther King made this comment was a pivotal point in his own career. This is his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, after which virtually all of his former allies turned against him. He was isolated after giving this speech.

What had become of the singular ascending ambition that had driven young Roosevelt from his earliest days? What explains his willingness, against the counsel of his most trusted friends, to accept seemingly low-level jobs that traced neither a clear-cut nor a reliably ascending career path? The answer lies in probing what Roosevelt gleaned from his crucible experience. His expectation of and belief in a smooth, upward trajectory, either in life or in politics, was gone forever. He questioned if leadership success could be obtained by attaching oneself to a series of titled positions. If a person focused too much on a future that could not be controlled, he would become, Roosevelt acknowledged, too “careful, calculating, cautious in word and act.” Thereafter, he would jettison long-term career calculations and focus simply on whatever job opportunity came his way, assuming it might be his last. “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are,” he liked to say. In a very real way, Roosevelt had come to see political life as a succession of crucibles—good or bad—able to crush or elevate. He would view each position as a test of character, effort, endurance, and will. He would keep nothing in reserve for some will-o-the-wisp future. Rather, he would regard each job as a pivotal test, a manifestation of his leadership skills.

This was a pivotal event in his career, as well as a personal epiphany. Often, when a man is young and idealistic, he believes that if he works hard and does the right thing, success will follow. This was what Boyd’s mother and childhood mentors had told him. But hard work and success do not always go together in the military, where success is defined by rank, and reaching higher rank requires conforming to the military’s value system. Those who do not conform will one day realize that the path of doing the right thing has diverged from the path of success, and then they must decide which path they will follow through life. Almost certainly, he realized that if he was not promoted early to lieutenant colonel after all that he had done, he would never achieve high rank.

In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself. —DEEPAK CHOPRA

I use the word sensing because words matter. If we spend our life “looking” for things, we may miss out on all that we can hear, taste, touch, feel and otherwise perceive and intuitively sense. Vision is too narrow a definition for what makes up our human consciousness.

Many people don’t make the conscious decision to navigate their career options and the opportunities to run parallel careers. Don’t be the many people. Take charge of your power to consciously choose a career path, or paths, that fits with the life you are creating for yourself.

Active Learning that is aimed at solving specific problems is the marriage of attention and intention and leads to positive outcomes for both the learner and beneficiaries of their output. Active learning can help you achieve a state of flow.

Children are THE future, they’re not your future. It’s an important distinction

The takeaway: you need to learn how to leverage communication techniques to achieve your positive impact goals. Some form of influence is relevant to all of us committed to living meaningfully within a society, and we will be assessed as economic and social actors by our impact on the communities around us.

To be better than average, the rules are to know your strengths and grow them, understand yourself deeply and cover the basics with your other responsibilities or outsource them so they don’t become liabilities. No one is asking for perfection here. The key is to be strategic with your time management.

If you are the father of a kid or teen, please know that you play an enormous role in the life of your daughter or son. Your words will shape their destiny and have a long-lasting impact. If you are the father of a daughter, I have a special request of you: Affirm your daughters. Not just by words and gestures, but by intentional and consistent actions that send the message you are there for them. The research is clear. Fathers play a pivotal role in their daughter’s self-image, self-esteem, and body image. Studies also show that girls with close and affirming relationships with their fathers are more likely to have self-confidence, perform better academically and have more successful career advancement.

An inflection point at your company or industry usually will require you to either change your skills or change your environment. In other words, it will often require you to pivot.

You are so goddamn sweet.” His lips skim over mine as he whispers, “I don’t even like sweet. I like filthy and unemotional. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’m at a pivotal moment in my career and you are fucking with my head.

Depression is being trapped in the past. Anxiety is being trapped in the future.

The prison of the past is one you must escape in order to pivot. Our job now is to find out where your attachments to the past lie.

An inability to release negative emotions from the past is like trying to drive by using only your rearview mirror. You can’t pivot by looking backward.

Back to 1992 and seeing this oaf saunter down the White House hallway with his beaded necklace. Mr. Mardi Gras had only just begun having his tall, young sidekick slap Gay Pride stickers on the walls and furniture, yes, the priceless historical furniture and walls of the White House. “Sir! Sir!” Careers were on the line, so I needed backup. The duo pivoted toward me and got the fracas they wanted, a pointless quarrel with those whose job it was to protect them. “I don’t care what’s on the stickers! Do not disrespect, disregard, or vandalize the White House! This isn’t your dorm room. It’s a living monument to the greatest leaders this country’s ever had!” “Oh no, this is our house now!” they squawked. They accused us of homophobia. We focused on decorum, protocol—and vandalism. I never expected such behavior from anyone capable of even potentially being appointed to work in the White House. Imagine that after clearing every background check they’d demonstrate such willful, unthinkable incompetence, unprofessionalism, and contempt.

schools). Don’t try to plan your entire college career in advance, because some of the most pivotal moments can be completely unexpected. Be sure to do something you like outside of class, but don’t spread yourself too thin. Travel far and wide. Studying, living, or working abroad can immensely widen your perspective of the world. Keep your focus on the big picture. Learn soft skills (people skills) as well as hard skills (technical skills). Socializing and collaborating sincerely can enrich and reward you more than comparing and competing obsessively. Connect, share, listen, discuss, learn, and work together open-mindedly with purpose and some humility. Conversing

Sheryl Sandberg writes in her book Lean In that women need to shift from thinking “I’m not ready to do that” to thinking “I want to do that and I’ll learn by doing it.”17

Erratic work makes us feel unstable, both emotionally and financially. We thrive when we know what is expected of us, when we know which goal post we're trying to hit. Chasing work or sorting out just what it is we are supposed to be doing in a role demands our energy in a way that is frenetic and often seems unsafe, both of which are a recipe for fatigue and burnout.

I’m at a pivotal moment in my career and you are fucking with my head.

This is a choice every young political staffer eventually faces, but it’s more severe for those who work in communications. Because getting press is core to the needs of virtually every politician, a good press secretary can amass a lot of power, influence, and access at a very young age. But it becomes your skill set, and if you can’t eventually pivot to something else, you’ll likely end up spending your postgovernment career at a PR firm, never reaching anywhere near the heights you expected to when you were twenty-seven and advising a mayor or governor or senator. So, to me, the key was using a communications role to gain power and experience at a young age, but then to pivot away before it was too late. I finally found the pivot.

Brian Gron was a passionate commercial lender but decided to do a career pivot to real estate development in 2021. Since then, he has gained exceptional experience facilitating commercial real estate sales and construction projects totaling millions of dollars.

Gaius Marius was a pivotal figure in Roman history. When he first embarked on his public career he was merely a novus homo Italian. But through steady persistence, he had climbed his way up the cursus honorum. As he climbed, he helped unlock the populare forces that challenged senatorial supremacy. He was connected to publicani merchants, a friend of the Italians, and patron to legions of poor veteran soldiers. He had fought and won wars against Jugurtha and the Cimbri, and at the peak of his power was hailed as the Third Founder of Rome. His spectacular career set an example for ambitious men of future generations, though this example was not uniformly positive. At the end of his life Marius came to embody the dark side of relentless ambition: “It can therefore be said that as much as he saved the state as a soldier, so much he damaged it as a citizen, first by his tricks, later by his revolutionary actions.” Above

On engineering social serendipity: By putting yourself in the right places and putting energy into making strategic contacts and opening yourself up to what's out there, you can become the queen of your own serendipity.

Find a secret and build your career or organization around it, searching via customer development for product/market fit (or another “fit” relevant to the situation). Strive to be like a heat-seeking missile in your search for product/market fit, deftly navigating the idea maze. Look for signs of hitting a resonant frequency for validation. If you can’t find any bright spots in what you’re doing after some time, critically evaluate your position and consider a pivot. Build a moat around yourself and your organization to create sustainable competitive advantage. Don’t get complacent; remember only the paranoid survive, and keep on the lookout for disruptive innovations, particularly those with a high probability of crossing the chasm.

The initial seeds of a culture shift were sown that night, in the army in general, but more importantly, in my own mind. It was a pivotal moment in my career as I tasted what it was like to have group cohesion, to have each other's backs, to be a part of something bigger than my own reach. I knew that one of the key arguments against women in combat had been that men would risk their own life to save the poor, weak and frail woman who was in danger. For some people this incident would confirm their philosophy when they learned an attack had been attempted to save me from my captors. Yet I knew that my teammates would have mounted the same attack for any other member of our platoon, and I am convinced I would have done the same for them. It seemed clear to me that one doesn't decide to be brave only for a select few. The instincts that drive courage would enable a soldier to do the right thing regardless of who was on the receiving end of the act. Valour is valour. No one is unworthy of saving when it is the right thing to do.

There is always some chance that whatever you have could be taken away from you. When you do everything in your power to prevent that from happening, you suck the joy right out of life. Instead, I’ve found that by actually embracing uncertainty, paradoxically, like Tony said, the quality of my life dramatically improved. When I made that pivot in my own life, all of a sudden I wasn’t as stressed out. I still work hard and I still try to make wise decisions, but I do what I can and then I leave the rest up to fate. I can’t control fate and I don’t even bother trying.

The celebrated start-up model of disruption that embraces failing fast and pivoting is not a typically female one. Women tend to be more risk averse. We can overthink our next move and not act until we’re 100 percent ready.1 We may feel like frauds when we’re trying something new. Instead of being disruptive, women tend to be more disciplined. And we’re often not pivoting—because we’re stuck.2

Reggie hired James Lee, an up-and-coming partner at Lee Tran & Liang, as his lawyer in the case. Lee had begun his career as an LAPD detective; when he started studying at Stanford Law School, the Palo Alto campus was so quiet it gave him insomnia. Evan and Bobby still retained Cooley LLP, who responded to Reggie’s letter in May 2012, as their lawyers for Snapchat. The ensuing discovery and depositions cost Snapchat significant time and money, but perhaps most importantly it weighed heavily on Evan at a pivotal point for the company. On April 5, Evan, Bobby, and their attorneys from Cooley, along with Reggie and his attorneys from Lee Tran & Liang, filed into a conference room in Cooley’s offices in downtown Santa Monica. Outside, tourists strolled up and down Santa Monica Boulevard, stopping in the trendy neighborhood’s upscale shops, restaurants, and bars; they might walk down the palm-tree-lined street to the beach or the famous pier. Inside the conference room the temperature was more frigid. Cooley’s Mike Rhodes began deposing Reggie, attempting to establish that Reggie had accomplished little since graduation: “What is your current employment, if any?” “Well, currently I’m working in the South Carolina attorney general’s office.” “And how long have you worked there?” “I guess about a month at this point.” “And what is your position?” “It’s basically an intern/ clerk position.” “Is that a nonpaying position?” “Yes, it is.” “And again, what was your approximate start date?” “A few weeks ago. Probably about a month.” “So early March?” “Yes.” “And what were you doing, if anything, for employment prior to that date?” “Well, I was applying to law school.” “Were you working?” “No.” Reggie became distracted midway through answering a question about which lawyers he had spoken with. A naked man had chosen the sidewalk across from the Cooley office as his performance stage for the day and was gesturing at Reggie through the window. The lawyers hastily closed the blinds and continued the deposition much less eventfully.

Since Parcells joined the NFL in 1980, his off-season workload has multiplied. Downtime eventually almost disappeared thanks to the Senior Bowl, the combine, free agency, the draft, minicamps, and training camp. Coaches also needed to factor in time to deal with unpredictable developments, or as Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense, might call them, known unknowns. Before the twilight of his NFL career, Parcells has especially relished his off-season football activities. But now at sixty-five, he had little appetite to prepare another team, especially given the chance of ultimately being undermined by a player flubbing a routine task in a game's pivotal moment. 'That was what got me,' he says, 'because now it's another year; we've got to go through a whole new cycle, when we were right there. We had a chance to win it and go to Chicago and beat the Bears. They weren't that good.

Only later would I learn how pivotal these moments are for anyone who sets out to start something new. Many times the hardest part about achieving a dream isn’t actually achieving it—it’s stepping through your fear of the unknown when you don’t have a plan. Having a teacher or boss tell you what to do makes life a lot easier. But nobody achieves a dream from the comfort of certainty.

he had always been able to charm, double-talk, and bamboozle had finally called fraud! His only hope for reputation and career salvation was a dramatic and unexpected change. “He had been tarred with an ‘incompetence’ brush by the very people who were his major supporters in the past. Only a complete change of strategy could resuscitate Tony Fauci’s career. If he was to continue receiving financial support for AIDS research from Congress, if he was to continue being the head of NIAID, he had to reinvent himself.”69 Dr. Fauci’s Strategic Pivot Anthony Fauci needed a makeover, and this master of bureaucratic survival responded to his existential crisis with a breathtaking pivot. Suddenly, Dr. Fauci turned to embrace the AIDS activists he had previously reviled. In the summer of 1989, he accosted Larry Kramer on a