Can You Turn Your Passion into a Career Choice?
13 challenges and solutions for an enjoyable career journey from a scientist-turned-entrepreneur.
Last year I gave a talk at an exciting London fintech startup Cleo AI. My talk focused on career challenges, with tips and advice. I realised that most of these challenges related to communication. My company Sentient Machines’s mission is to transform human communication.
In the early days of my career, both in academia completing my PhD, and subsequently in industry, I managed projects and people in situations I’ve never experienced before. The team needed to be happy and motivated, and external stakeholders demanded strong results. Communication was key to being able to do this successfully, with a core passion, and ethical beliefs.
13 Challenges and Solutions to Help You Enjoy your Career Journey
Challenge 1 — Keep the Focus
I’m personally slightly obsessed with productivity, and keeping the focus. As an AI Scientist I develop solutions for industry, transforming cutting edge AI into actionable insights. Hence, when I’m solving a particular problem, it could happen that I miss the nuance of other people’s feelings, because if distracted, I might miss the unknown unknowns that I’m focused on. The upside is getting a lot done without distraction. The downside is demanding too much productivity from others and potentially hurting their feelings. Which I did. Once. Never after that. And this was, simply because of what I said. And the way my words were interpreted and perceived. It was not because of my intention. My intention was to get the job done as quickly as possible, and with as little distraction as possible.
Solution: Don’t Ignore Emotion
When you work with colleagues and demanding clients, being empathic, and aware of the other person’s focus, emotions and big picture dreams, can ensure you are synergistically aligned. In my experience an aligned team is unstoppable. Which brings me to challenge number 2.
Challenge 2 — The Fine Line between Individual vs. Team Achievements
Working with new people can initially appear complex due to varying preferences, affiliations, and goals. The challenge to scale a small dynamic team, into a larger success story whilst retaining a personal touch. One of the consequences of getting this wrong is losing key personnel because they feel unappreciated. Perhaps they feel lost among the “new-comers” bringing specialist experience.
Solution: “Rope Trick”
“Rope Trick”: Seek to understand the other person’s perspective and act as one.
One of my favourite books — The Diamond Cutter, talks about the concept of the Rope Trick, where you are bound to act as one by a symbolic rope. This means understanding unique personal and business goals, and different personality types. Synergy between teammates necessitates good communication and the goal of mutual success.
After all, we each bring unique qualities to the table and when aligned the sum is greater than the individual parts. You could apply the Rope Trick to more than two people — to the whole team. Which brings me to the third potential hurdle:
Challenge 3 — The Illusion of Communication
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. “
— George Bernard Shaw
In 2011, I worked in a startup building on the technology at the core of Siri before it was sold to Apple. Our goal was to create a learning companion. It was a very exciting project for all of us, and we were so passionate that we went way beyond just improving a core platform.
We made it scalable (capable of learning just by adding a new knowledge base, or enriching the current one), without any need to update the algorithms. I remember I had a day full of meetings with the SRI team in Menlo Park, and couldn’t check my emails. I later proudly discovered that my UK team had delivered a new ‘learning bot’ on a completely new subject, the same day. I knew how good our technology was, and how brilliant our team was. But I wasn’t communicating that very well with the non-tech management team. SRI team was impressed because they understood the tech. But the non-tech management team didn’t get it. They even told us how they’ve never seen anything amazing about our AI. I was puzzled. How could they not appreciate what we’ve built?
It was two years later, that Google acquired API.AI today known as DialogFlow, and Facebook acquired Wit.ai. Both are now very popular and enable anyone to create a simple bot in a matter of hours. That proved that what we had at that moment was very special, very advanced of the competition, and very hot on the market, but the broken communication lines between the tech and non-tech teams meant this strategic advantage was squandered. Which is why, to prevent this happening, I decided to lead the business side of Sentient Machines as a CEO.
Solution: Make No Assumptions
Never assume that the other person holds in their mind, the gems that you have in yours. Remember the Rope Trick? It doesn’t really matter if you manage a team, or you’re managed by someone, or both. Transparency and empathic communication is key to success. Which brings me to the next brief, but important challenge:
Challenge 4 — Understanding Team Dynamics
This, in the context of my career, refers to a situation where I relied on a colleague to manage a team, whilst not fully appreciating that he wasn’t team focused. The consequences were that we lost a couple of great team members, which is when I understood the real value of team dynamics.
Solution: Don’t put all eggs in one basket.
Being transparent and as open as possible with everyone is key. Open and relaxed 1:1 sessions done regularly can bring miracles. There is nothing wrong in having more trust in one person versus the other. But it’s important to give everyone an equal chance to express their thoughts, and not feel ignored. Acknowledge this, and you will witness a loving and productive environment where everyone is contributing their absolute best to deliver a larger goal. Remember that everyone has potential, and everyone needs to contribute their unique skill sets. And everyone is different and brings different experiences and backgrounds. Which takes me to the next point:
Challenge 5 — Cultural Differences: The Middle Way
Being brought up in Serbia, where the culture is very direct, it’s considered polite to get to the point, as straight (or blunt) as possible. Which is the very opposite from the British culture where I now live and love (unless in Yorkshire). There is a middle way.
Once I had an amazing developer in our team, and we decided to bring on an architect to reengineer the core piece of our platform. I thought the developer would be delighted to have someone to help, and someone to learn from. Especially as we hired a very experienced architect. I immediately felt resistance, and the developer was hurt, saying that I’d not understood how good he was.
I knew that we needed a specialist, or the developer needed to upgrade his skillset to push the cutting edge. However, my directness had caused distress.
Solution: Regular One to One Sessions
The lesson I learnt was: Adjust to cultural differences and needs.
Ever since then, I have been a big fan of regular one to one sessions already discussed above, where we openly give each other feedback. I found that these sessions typically highlight, or help to highlight challenges in communication. These sessions might touch on cultural differences in a very casual way. They also make team members feel like…humans. Because someone listens: What they like, and what they’d like to change. What you want is honest feedback, because their opinion should matter. Otherwise, why are they in your team?
Being brought up to be very honest, and always without exception doing things with good intention, it felt initially confusing (and borderline insulting) that someone would even think of my intentions otherwise. But after over a decade, I can see why people need acknowledgment, and winning teams nurtured. Progression delivers a sense of achievement, gratitude, and ultimately a golden feeling of connected happiness.
Which brings me to the next potential hurdle:
Challenge 6 — Climbing the Ladder
When you start a new job, you usually have a tabula rasa in front of you. Unknown people, challenges, situations. They require constant learning and development, to make progress every step of the way. Even when you are settled and fully productive, there will be challenges to progress onto the next stage.
Solution: Have a Mentor
I have been helped a lot during my career, from early days of programming, to my entrepreneur journey. I’m constantly exposed to new opportunities to learn and readjust daily.
Mentors can be a massive help. Not ‘reinventing the wheel,’ saves you valuable time and resources that is better directed at creating a world leading product. Even if it’s only as a bouncing board, mentorship can transform your life. A mentor can be a person, or a book. What do I need to learn, that adds even more value?
Challenges bring the colour to life. It’s a strength to acknowledge that different specialists bring invaluable insight and value. Finding a mentor can be a challenge, the acknowledgement that you must not become a ‘jack of all trades,’ but retain your unique edge. Which brings me to the next potential hurdle:
Challenge 7 — Asking for Help.
I personally have always asked for help in my career, when I needed it. People can be shy and feel embarrassed, and here is where communication can transform your experience. If people are shy and work in an environment that doesn’t encourage asking for help, a lot of time can be wasted. Valuable and critical time.
Solution: Offer to Help.
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
– Pablo Picasso
It’s lovely to be surrounded with people you can learn from, but also share your learnings. And if you are open to this, you can learn from anyone — a new graduate, or a very experienced senior executive. Sharing your knowledge with the others will encourage you to reach out for help when you need it most. It can tip the scales.
The way you phrase or offer help, and the way you seek for help will also impact your experience. Which brings me to the next (my least favourite) potential hurdle:
Challenge 8 — Life’s a Pitch
I don’t like pitching. After more than three years pitching Sentient Machines, I only now fully appreciate how important it is to get your message across in a market where good technology can be easily drowned by industry noise.
If you think about it, even if you want your partner to come with you to a theatre play, you are pitching. You need to get them excited. It’s good to go into that mindset of thinking “OK, I want someone on board, because I know this is really excellent and they would massively benefit from it. How can I excite them, and get them to listen to what I know will be genuinely transformative? The Rope Trick again: Seek to understand the other person’s perspective and act as one?
I am guilty of assuming that if I’m excited, the others will get excited too, and immediately comprehend the massive potential in front of them. This sometimes happens, usually with visionaries or fast evolving SMEs. They see the breakthrough technology, its disruptive ability and pick up on my excitement. Other times, it’s whoever has a seemingly better pitch, regardless of the transformative potential or innovation. The bottom line is, even if your tech is amazing, and your pitch isn’t, no one will listen to you.
Solution: Understand Your Audience
Listening is critical. It’s how our tech can really transform our client’s business. The client is king, period. You need repeat business and organic recommendations from providing the best possible service and outperforming expectations. It’s not about you anymore, it’s about them. Try to understand your audience, and adjust your pitch to be heard clearly and perceived in their unique language style. Bring in your personality as much as you can with anything you do, after all you are passionate about it, right?. One good way to practice is asking yourself: “Why do you do what you do?”. This will vocalise a more interesting story, the real essence of your drive for excellence, and it brings me to my next point about disruption.
Challenge 9 — Challenging Status Quo
I have always been of the opinion that I should do whatever is the best for the tech breakthroughs of the company, and not for my promotion. For me, it’s very healthy to be in an environment where you could literally challenge anything anyone says, and it doesn’t matter who that person is. Depending on the company culture and management, this might be harder than it sounds.
Solution: Believe in Something even if It Means Sacrificing Everything
To maximise your potential, you need to be in an environment that suits your personal goals and desires. If this doesn’t happen, follow your beliefs until you get there.
You might have seen this advert that Nike did (and earned a lot of money on the back of it). It’s the NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who did a protest against racism by not singing the national anthem.
If you have a strong belief, become it. Otherwise, what is the point? It’s a risk, but nothing great in life can be achieved without taking risk.
Which is why I’d encourage the behaviour of “question everything,” by understanding what drives you:
Challenge 10 — Understanding Your Motivation
In today’s day and age we spend a lot of time running around, ticking off our todo list. We are constantly bombarded with information our brain needs to process. Eventually you could get exhausted if you don’t have strong motivation. Motivation is fuel.
Solution: Find Your Mountain Garden
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
– Leo Tolstoy
Meditation, yoga, swimming, running, or any kind of activity that brings your mind to a still, and removes all wondering thoughts will help you zoom out of the current situation and observe the world from a high level perspective.
It will help you find your Mountain Garden, the place which is a collection of everything you love — a concept from a beautiful fable about self-actualisation, and following your intuition to align with your life purpose. Your Mountain Garden can be hidden and you might not be able to immediately see it. I remember reading this book at a very stressful time of my career, and it really helped me to realign with my core values and happiness. As if someone has tapped me on a shoulder and said ‘everything is fine, you are doing fine’.
What really gets you out of bed in the morning? Is there a particular topic that makes your heart beat faster? If you have trouble identifying it, start from your hobbies. Your childhood. Recall when you felt content and happy. Keep reviewing this until you get to the point where you understand what makes you wake up motivated.
It’s stillness of mind where you feel content with yourself. You could be in a meditative state if you are trying to solve a very difficult problem, or fully concentrated on a sporting activity such as climbing. This ability to concentrate brings clarity to the things that matter, which is my next point, taking direct action:
Challenge 11 — Leading vs. Following
We are all different. Some are more comfortable to follow, others to create from the front. We all have a unique role to fulfil us.
Solution: Be Proactive
It is important to own your desires, beliefs, and decisions.
Ayn Rand in The Fountainhead talks beautifully about Creators vs. Second handers. Creators are typically not welcomed by the world, and a lot of people become Second handers so to cope with the way society is set up. But the world is making progress on the back of the work of the Creators. For the benefit of humanity, Creators are what moves us forward. Second handers follow, or just drag by.
Let your own personality out and don’t be afraid to share it. There is nothing wrong with being authentic and different. There is nothing wrong with following either, if you have taken a conscious decision to do it, but if you have a driving passion, protect it:
Challenge 12 — Protecting Your Passion
I was inspired to write this down when thinking of a reason I left one of the companies I worked for. Traveling is very important to me. Holidays are very important. So, I did not work for a company where this passion was not respected.
Solution: Understand Your Core Values and Don’t Compromise
It is important to be in an environment where you are inspired and motivated. An environment that fully aligns with your core values. If you are not in one, keep looking for it. Life is too short to be lived on someone else’s terms. You deserve to have what you want and to excel in your passion. This means constantly challenging yourself to explore new horizons:
Challenge 13 — Keeping It Fresh
We need to be inspired to move out of our comfort zone on a regular basis. We are creatures of habit, and by adopting the positive aspects, we can optimise personal evolution.
Solution: Surround Yourself with People and Things That Inspire You
It’s important to always make new friends and take note of people who inspire you. Spend as much time with them as possible. People who have their interests aligned with yours (remember The Rope Trick?). Working in a company where people inspire you is important, because that’s what’s going to push you forward.
Elon Musk is a big inspiration. For his tenacity, big vision, persistence, and the fact that money is the resource to get things done. I couldn’t remove the smile from my face when I heard a song he recently produced. In the words of Elon Musk, if you feel inspired to make a difference:
“Don’t doubt your vibe, because it’s true
Don’t doubt your vibe because it’s you”
