Don’t wait for fate to deal with you as it wishes

I recently stumbled across a job posting for an engineering internship at a software company.

Here’s the bullet point that caught my eye.:

We have a shipping culture, so we expect our interns to contribute in meaningful ways right off the bat. You’ll ship something your first week, and every week after that. Leave your slowpoke job in the dust.

Not only because it rhymes, but also because it points to a larger principle that has broad application.

It’s the concept of earlier. Building a bias towards output. Erring on the side of sooner.

I can’t say it works for every aspect of life, as there are many times when doing things later makes much more sense.

For example, our hot yoga instructor used to warn parents not to bring their kids to class unless they were about twelve years old, as puberty is when the body’s sweat glands become much more active. Any earlier, and the child risks overheating and dehydration.

Clearly there will always be exceptions.

But in many business situations, waiting to see if your circumstances will bend in a more favorable direction might not be the best approach.

Particularly when you’re new on the job. No employee has ever looked back at their tenure at the company and said with regret:

Man, I wish I’d waited longer to make a meaningful contribution at this organization.

Earlier is better. See if you can start now.

The good news is, nobody is standing in the way of your ability to create value. Sure, there will be a learning curve and ramp up time and onboarding work, but in most cases, you should be able to ship something your first week.

Even if you’re not an engineer. Shipping is just code, no pun intended, for the act deploying value. Everybody can do that. It’s simply a matter of matching skill with opportunity. Putting your antennae up, turning your radar on, and finding a venue where you can give a gift of some kind.

Time, talent, treasure, attention, connection, whatever. Doesn’t even have to be big or urgent. The goal is to solve meaningful problems.

I remember my first day working at a startup of about seventeen people. Everybody was so busy that nobody had time to train me. Even if they did, it’s not like there was any kind formal onboarding program to take me through.

My boss handed me a laptop, told me to find a desk, invited me to some meetings and introduced me to the team. That’s about it.

Not being a stranger to this situation, I did the same thing I always did.

Went onto our highly disorganized company drive and read every single document in existence. Contracts, emails, presentations, memos, notes, reports, spreadsheets, you name it. Five years old, five days old, didn’t matter. I needed context and fast.

This deep dive took about two days. I gleaned tons of insights. When I was finished with my digital excavation, I came back to the surface with pages of notes, dozens of questions and even a few ideas. I packaged my learnings into a findings presentation for my boss.

Which he loved so much, that he asked me to present to the whole team. Which I did, along with several strategic recommendations of how to proceed.

All of this happened in the first week. Cost me almost nothing, gave me context on virtually everything, and created value for practically everyone. That was my version of shipping something in the first week.

What’s yours? What value might you be able to deploy as you acclimate to your new environment?

It’s not as hard as it sounds. Shipping early requires more will than skill. The mental barrier you have to overcome is the voice of fear.

Like what if you fail?

Good point. And that outcome is very possible since you’re so new to the process.

But remember, the earlier you do things, the easier it is to recover if you fail, since other people will be more forgiving. Trust that whatever social capital you lose due to imperfection is outweighed by what you gain in attention, respect and trust.

The risk is worth it.

Another voice of fear question that might arises, what if people are annoyed or upset by your initiative?

That could certainly happen. There will always be a universal chorus of scorn waiting to shit on your work, no matter what team you join. And that’s just the stuff people say to your face.

But the thing is, that small percentage of people are going to be annoyed whether it’s your first day or your fifth year, so you may as well take the hit and ship.

Besides, if they’re really that pissed at someone for taking meaningful action, that’s on them. That’s their insecurity they need to work out. And it says more about their work than yours.

Thank them for their feedback, incorporate it if it makes sense, and then go ship something else.

I’m reminded of another startup job I held a human resources company. Despite having worked a several tech companies before, the industry was brand new to me. I knew next to nothing about how to compensate and retain employees.

To prepare for my role, the week before my job started, I read fifteen books on the subject and took tons of notes.

Are you noticing a pattern here?

This is my go to strategy when I’m feeling out of my depth. Start reading and start writing. As early as I can. I overwhelm myself with every possible input, spreading out everything I have front of my face, and start looking for natural relationships, patterns, inherent geometry, unconscious integrations, cross pollinations, trends, categories, structures and thought bridges between seemingly unrelated ideas.

It always equips me to ship something my first week and get some early victories up on the board. Even if only one or two people on the team notice, that’s enough to make it worthwhile.

It’s like a good financial planner will say about retirement accounts.

It’s never too early and you’re never too young to contribute.

Start now and give a gift to your future self. At the very least, the process of trying to ship something your first week will motivate you.

You’ll get practice taking action on your intuitive leads. And you’ll prove to yourself that everything you contribute allows you to keep playing the game.

Don’t wait for fate to deal with you as it wishes.

Start earlier.

How are you activating things yourself and bending the world towards you?