Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

Secret to Keeping Your Career Goals On Track

One of the continuing themes Warren Buffett has running through his writings in Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-A) reports, is the need to keep everything simple.

In reference to investments, he gave an example of how he thinks. Here's how he describes it: "When making investments, pretend in life you have a punch-card with only 20 boxes, and every time you make an investment you punch a slot. It will discipline you to only make investments you have extreme confidence in. Big money is made by obvious things."

I want to transfer this to career moves, because I believe it applies in that realm as well.

First of all, what I like about Buffett's simple formula above, is that he's helping his readers to understand that there isn't a lot of times when major moves will become available. We need to be prepared for and ready to respond to those moments.

In place of the word "investments" in Buffett's idea above, replace it with the words "career move," and you'll get the thought he's trying to convey.

Surprisingly to many, being promoted may not always be the best career move for you. Not because promotion is bad or wrong, but it may not line up with your professional and personal goals. Everything needs to be lined up for you in order to punch one of those 20 boxes on the card.

In other words, just like in investing, there's discipline involved with reaching professional goals.

Of course this only works when you know what you want and where you want to end up professionally. Just like investing in companies, you must understand the underlying fundamentals in order to make intelligent decisions and understand the risks involved.

Let's say you have two choices before you. One, you get a promotion and can move up in the company. The problem for you is it doesn't lead you to where you want to go within the company. It could possibly even make it harder to reach it.

On the other hand, say you also have a move that is sideways from an outside way of looking at it, but puts you on the path where you want to end up.

In the short-term your decision may look like a bad one to onlookers, as you miss out on some short-term benefits. But you know what is considered a sideways move by those that don't understand what you're after, is in reality a forward move, because it puts you on the path in the company to get to where you want to go.

All these things are able to happen when you keep it simple and understand there'll only be a small number of important moves you must make at the right time to get to where you want. Make sure nothing you do keeps you from staying on your path. Keep your punch-card ready for those important times.

Other Buffett Resources:

Wisdom of Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, investor

Warren Buffett: The trouble with being a legend

Warren Buffett: 'I told you so'

Company growth

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