← Build with Leila Hormozi
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What's up, guys? Today on Build, I want to talk about something that I have not spoken about in a long time. This is the three skills that can accelerate your career in your 20s. I wanted to make this podcast today because I own a company that is growing quickly and in every department that I have, I have people who are very ambitious and also very young. And I, over the years have had a lot of people, I'd say, that are early stage in their careers in my companies. And I have noticed and seen, and I've been doing this long enough to see the people who go on to really succeed and the people that end up floundering or maybe just jumping business to business, but not really increasing their skill set or, you know, I would say, like, the level of role that they have or even just like their, gosh, their career path overall. And so I wanted to make this because I got a lot of questions from two different departments in the last couple weeks. I did a full team survey. And when I do that full team survey for my quarter, essentially what I do is I ask people, you know, if you were CEO, what would you do differently, as well as what are the biggest challenges that you're facing today? And I was looking at what people that were in the younger half of their career were saying, and I thought it was really interesting because it's like, through even just reading what people wrote, I'm like, I can already predict who's going to be the most successful and who isn't. And it's one, the quality of questions they're asking. But two, the way that they see their role and the way that they see their skill development. And so it really got me thinking that I wanted to make this podcast partially for myself, to crystallize my thoughts, partially for my team so I can send it to them, and partially for all of you guys that you understand how to coach people that are younger in their career on these things. And the first thing I'll start with, with this is the preface, which is, um, I will often have managers come to me and when they are a little less experienced and be like, oh, my gosh, this person said that they feel like they're not growing or they feel like they really want this skill, and they. They don't know why they're not getting it fast enough. And. And then I'm like, oh, you mean Jerry over there who's been here for six weeks? And they're like, yeah. And I'm like, oh, goodness. And so the first thing I want to tell you Guys, if you are a leader who is leading people that are younger in their career, your job, which is like the funnest fucking job ever, your job is to be their teacher. You are their teacher. They don't know how the world works in work. If this is one of their first jobs. They don't know what's right, what's wrong, what's normal, what's not. And so they're going to constantly challenge and question you because they're trying to figure it out themselves. And so the first thing I want to start with is the understanding that if you, every time your team comes to, you essentially are sold on their frame, whatever that may be, you question not nothing, but you are insecure to the degree that anything they say is something that you're like, oh, gosh, you know, maybe they're completely right about this and I've been wrong this entire decade or two decades of my career. It's going to be really hard for you. And I think it's being able to strike that balance between having humility and listening and also knowing, oh, I've done this before. I've helped, you know, 30, 40, 50 people young in their career, accelerate their careers and also move on to have amazing careers. And so I say this coming from a place of experience in guiding a lot of people in their careers and in their younger years towards great careers and people who have gone on to do great things after working at my company and then also seeing the people who haven't and they have not really been able to succeed and they have floundered. And so that being said, have a little bit of certainty about yourself when you're talking to people who have never had a job before. Um, people can be very influential and compelling at no whatever skill they come in at. But you have to remember that your job is to be their teacher. And if anything, people that are younger are looking for a teacher. And so if you don't take the teacher frame, it's going to be very difficult to manage people that are young and in their 20s. So I wanted to start with that preface because I think it's really important. Some of you guys almost are getting steamrolled by younger people in their careers and you need to remember that they came here to learn and that is your job. That being said, if you are in your 20s and you are working at a fast growing company, it is completely natural to want everything to move quickly. That means your opportunities, it means getting promotion, it means learning. And it can almost be to the degree I'm just gonna be honest that if you feel like for a week you're not making progress, you're just like incredibly impatient about it. I see it all the time. I talk to people all the time. I see it. And that's okay. We can acknowledge these things. But what I want to talk about today is the people that I have employed, the people that have been in my companies and the people that I have known who have grown the most and actually grown the fastest are usually the ones who master timeless skills that other people are overlooking. And so I want to share those three skills with you guys today that I want to say are probably the most important skills that you can hone in on your 20s if you want to accelerate your career and get the most out of it. Now, those skills are patience, consistency, and ownership. Okay, number one is patience. And you're like, oh, I wouldn't have guessed that, Layla. Yes, it is patience. Now why is it patience? Because growth is always going to take longer than you think. So like when I have somebody coming to me three months into a job, you know, saying that, you know, I'm not sure why I haven't grown, et cetera. Like three months is a warmup. Lap, homie lap. Like we are barely getting started. You are barely in here. People barely know what you do. That is just the fucking truth. Right? Until people hear your name consistently over and over again, they see your work. People in other departments are impressed by what you're doing. Leadership is talking about when you, when you're not there. You cannot complain about growth. You have to be the person I say you want to make it to the dinner table. When your leader or the leaders of the company are at dinner, what are they going to say about you? What are they going to say you did? And the goal is to make it to the dinner table. Now that takes time. And unfortunately what happens is impatience makes you jump ship way too soon. And the real growth opportunities, they always happen after you have stayed along long enough to see patterns, to earn people's trust and to master the fundamentals. I will tell you, most leaders are not impressed with flashy one time work. They are impressed with people who have high character, who can show up day after day even though that they're very young in their career. And they demonstrate patience, they demonstrate long term thinking. Those are people who are going to be more valuable to a company than people that can pull a flashy trick out of their sleeve one time and then, you know, fluke the next week of work. And I will say this. Now, patience is not passive. It is not. And a lot of people think about it this way. Patience is choosing to invest deeply in the opportunity in front of you instead of always chasing the next one. And oftentimes, what happens when you're young and what I. Gosh. My perspective. When I was young, I always thought I had mastered something the moment I had success. It's like the moment I made my first sale, the moment I made my first $20,000 sale, $30,000 sale, 40,000. I've mastered sales. I'm a sales master. I am. I wish because I was so naive at that point, that I had understood mastery takes years. It just does. And I think the best skill that I honed in on and I have really, really doubled down on in my entire life is patience. And because of that, I've been able to see the accumulation and compound effect of those skills. Now what happens is a lot of times people say, well, that's boring, and I want to do more fun, exciting stuff. And unfortunately, when you are young, one of the most impressive things you can do is be a little bit fucking boring. I'm serious. When I think about the people in my company who are the most ambitious that I have the most respect for, that are the youngest. What I respect the most is their patience, that they're trying to master a skill. And oftentimes I will have people come to me and they will say something to the degree of Layla, like, I'm. I've been here nine months or 10 months, or maybe it's 11 months or a year. And, you know, I just want to figure out, like, I feel like maybe this is, like, there's nothing left for me here, right? And I'm not kidding, you guys. I get this conversation often. They're like, I don't know what's next? And I'm like, the exact thing you're saying to me is the reason why you are where you are, because the fact that you don't see this and the fact that you don't see the skill gap is why you aren't moving up in the skills. The fact that you think you need to get better at this thing or the fact that you think you've mastered this thing is the exact reason why you're not in the next role, because you are so. You are so underskilled that you don't see how much skill there is left to grab. And this is not a bad thing, guys. This is a good thing. And the best thing you can do is ask rather than complain. Or tell people that you don't know what's left for you or you're unsure how you're going to grow. Ask people why you're not. Ask your boss, why is it that I'm not a senior director? Why is it that I'm not a vice president? Why is it that I'm not a C level person in the company? Ask. Make them tell you. Seriously. I mean, not every company is like ours, where I'm like, hey, we want to constantly be telling people these things. But lots of companies, if you frickin hound them down and you're like, listen, tell me why I'm not in this role, they will tell you, they will come up with something. They will be able to verbally explain to you why it is so. Patience is one of the most important things that you can do. I will tell you that the people that I am the most impressed with in my company are the ones that can work day in, day out on things that are. It's the same thing they did the day before and they just get 0.51%, 2% better. I'm like, this is a future leader. This is a future change maker. This person has what it takes to really grow something in this company. When somebody sees someone who constantly wants to jump from thing to thing and talk about how they're not growing every three to four months, that is not somebody you want to entrust with things in your organization. Because the skills needed to grow a company, a lot of them are mastery, are doing the boring work, are being patient, are doing the same thing day after day. Because guys, most companies die from indigestion, not starvation. They do too much, they hop around too much, they change too much. So if you exhibit those things as a human, you contribute to the problem. You see what I'm saying here? And so if you really want to impress people and you really want to move up and accelerate your career, show them how fucking patient you are. Be aggressively patient. Now the second skill that comes with this, and you might have noticed it kind of weaved in there is consistency. Flashy wins matter way less to people and way less to people running companies than being reliable day in and day out. You know what most people say about younger people? How do they describe them? They usually talk to them. They say they're flaky, they're not on time, they don't show up, they wonder if they're going to, you know what, what do they get known for? People that are younger in their career, they quit suddenly, they disappear. They don't show up on time. They sleep in. They're unpredictable. So how do you stand out? You become consistent. Your boss, your team, your leaders, they need to know that they can count on you and not wonder which version of you is going to show up today. And if you want more responsibility, show them that you can be aggressively patient and consistent with the current one you have. Because nobody in a company wants to hand somebody more responsibility to somebody who wants to dump their responsibilities every three months. It's a complete fucking waste of the company's time. If every three months they have to give you a new job, that is too much change for the company. And imagine if they had to do that with every single person. Seriously, I want you to think about this. If you're like, every three months, I get this itch and I want to change. Imagine if the company had to do that for every person in it. That is not how it works. And. And the thing is, is that you don't gain the skills you need by doing that. That's the funny part, is like, the skills that you need are the skills that you are trying to avoid accumulating by asking to do something else. So it's not good for the company, it's not good for you. But when people come to me and say, how do I accelerate my career? I haven't moved up in three months. I have to sit there and I'm like, the reason that you haven't accelerated is because you're asking me every three months why you haven't moved up in your career. And the thing is, is that consistency is going to compound, and over time, it builds your reputation. And that reputation opens doors faster than any big idea that you have ever can. When you build a reputation that you're young, but you're consistent and you're diligent and you're hungry, you will unlock so many opportunities within a company, within your career, within your network. But if your reputation is that you're flaky, if your reputation is that you're constantly asking to change your job every couple months. If your reputation is that you're constantly asking why you're not the C level of the company, that's going to be your reputation. People aren't going to hand you these opportunities. But if you just. I say it all the time. There's like the Lil Wayne song. It's like real GS move in silence like lasagna. I love that saying. Because, guys, I look for the silent killers on the team, the people who work hard Day in, day out, they're building their character. Guys, anybody can learn how to make a sales call. Anybody can learn how to make a piece of content. Anybody can learn how to analyze a business. But people cannot learn and often do not learn how to be consistent, patient, work hard, be industrious, have humility. They are far more valuable. You will be far more valuable to a company if you learn those things, I promise you. Because when people know they can rely on you, people know that you're consistent, they will give you opportunities that require consistency. And the biggest opportunities in any business require immense consistency and mastery. So you shoot yourself in the foot by constantly going to something and asking them for new. Because then they're like, well, I can't give you the really good stuff because I don't trust that you're going to stay around. I don't trust that you're going to stay focused. I don't trust that you're really going to put 120% effort in. I think you're going to make it. You're going to check the box and you're like, I've already done this. What, what, what are we doing next? Consistency wins. And I promise you, consistency unlocks more doors than any flashy big idea than any one time project you can do. It will always do that. Which brings me to the last skill, if you are in your 20s, to excel at your career, and that is ownership. Now, what is ownership? I think that if you really take the ownership mindset, you will be consistent and patient. Because ownership is about treating the business like it is your business. It means that you don't wait to be asked. When you see a problem, you step in. When something falls through the cracks, you fill the cracks. And now what ownership does is it makes you stand out. Because leaders are always looking for people who lift weight off their shoulders rather than add to it. So instead of, it's so funny. But guys, show, don't tell if you want to move up, show them how you make their life easier. Don't tell them how you're going to make their life easier. If you want a new, if you want a promotion, show them that you're already doing the job. Don't ask them if you can do the job. Show them. And then you will naturally already be doing the role that you want. People ask me all the time, they're like, you know, how would I move up into this role? I'm like, do it now. And they're like, I don't, I don't understand. I'm like, you know, you want to be a CRO and you're a sales manager and you're like, what do I have got to do to be CRO? I'm like, the moment that you act like a CRO, you will be CRO in this company. I promise you that. And they're like, well, I don't understand. Like, what do you mean by that? I'm like, start doing the job that you wish to have. And they're like, well, I don't know how to do that. I'm like, well, that's the problem. So the problem many times is that somebody is looking to move up and they're saying, I need a step up from you to move up versus I'm going to take ownership of my own career. I'm going to figure out how can I accelerate my career by using all the resources in the company by reading books, by talking to other leaders, not by asking my boss to do part of my job and to mentor me six days a week. Like, I hate to say it, but it's the truth. I mentor people in my company who already pursue mentoring themselves. I mentor people that report to me who already do the hard work themselves to pour into themselves and pour into their career. If somebody does not show me that they're doing that, I'm not going to give you more of my time. It's just the truth. If you put in the work, I'll put in the work. And that is why ownership makes people stand out. So if you ask yourself, I don't know why I don't have this job, right, There's a few different things that it could be. It could be that you're not patient enough. Truly. They're just trying to see, especially if you want to move into a leadership position, there's no. I see no world in which, at least in my company, I'm never going to put somebody in a leadership position who doesn't have patience or consistency right now. The next thing I'm not going to do is I'm not going to give somebody a big opportunity who doesn't have patience or consistency. Why? Because within the size company I have, you know, doing multiple nine figures a year, there is no opportunity that is going to not require consistency and patience. And so I cannot put somebody on any opportunity that doesn't require it right now. I will say this. Even without a title, you can lead people by taking responsibility, and that responsibility will create opportunity itself. The people that I have watched move up the fastest are the people who move the Slowest. The people that I have watched accelerate their careers faster than ever are the people who have never had to ask. The people that I have watched, who have had the most growth in their character and skills, are the people who always sought to foster it first themselves before asking somebody else to help them. I have people in my company who are making multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars a year that are only in their young twenties. And it is not because they act in a way that is erratic and because they continue to ask, ask, ask, grab, grab, grab. It's because they demonstrate the character traits of somebody who's not in their 20s. Seriously. That's the thing, and I hate to say it, but people in their 20s get a bad rap. They're known in the workplace for being impatient, inconsistent, and flaky. If you can be the opposite of that, that is when you win. If you can flip that, you can stay patient, you can be steady, you can take ownership. You will separate yourself from everybody else there. And that is how careers accelerate. And that is also. Those are the skills that you need anywhere to lead, to move up, to have your own company, to do anything in life. So if you're in your 20s and you want to grow fast, do not just chase the shiny next thing. Master patience. Show up with consistency. Take ownership of whatever is in front of you to the nth degree. And if you do those things, you won't just grow faster. You will become the kind of person that opportunities chase, and they will get brought to you.