Standing out

Hello again my friend,

McKinsey found that top performers in critical roles deliver 800% more productivity than average performers in the same role.

Then I zoomed out and looked at the current landscape.

The generational unemployment for new grads. How entry-level roles are disappearing because of AI. How companies like Shopify, Meta, IKEA, and almost all the major companies are laying people off. How Gen Z grew up watching YouTubers buy houses in their early 20s, and for many, that feels like a safer bet than university.

It’s brutal out there.

But not for everyone.

High impact performers are winning big, like at Meta (which I’ve mentioned before).

But what does that mean for early and mid-rank professionals?

Do we all become AI researchers and hope Zuckerberg notices us?

If you can, great, but for most of us, there’s another path.

Become the person people bet on.

Let’s get into it.

Giving someone that chance when no one else would.

It’s to give them outsized opportunities compared to their credentials or experience.

It’s bringing them into rooms with big shots in their first month when they’re not ‘ready.’

It’s saying great things about them behind closed doors.

In Suits, a hot shot lawyer (Harvey Specter) gives Mike a chance. Mike obviously did well; better than anyone ever expected. It’s kind of the point of the show.

But it’s not just fiction.

I’ll level with you. I was also in a similar position and someone bet on me. And this is recent.

From 12 years of experience in Vancouver, in senior positions, to suddenly cold-emailing the CEO of beehiiv for a part-time support job. What?

How does someone with that resume end up in such a position? Lots of questions, and no reason for the folks at beehiiv to necessarily care or give me a chance. I didn’t fit: no experience in support, in tech, or working for American companies.

Yes, the circumstances were tough, but I’m sure many companies would have just ignored me anyway. Tyler, Preeya, and beehiiv bet on me in that way. It’s worked well.

But the question now is why?

I’m not some ‘guru’ selling you a story. I’ve lived this personally.

Email right away, not waiting for a job posting. Showing up even when you don’t “fit.” Don’t ask questions, figure out the answer and then show up ready to make an impact. High-agency behaviour is the answer.

When I wrote that cold-email, I included a doc with 15 frequently asked questions with the answers (templates for answering tickets), and told them they could keep those whether I’m hired or not. I was first hired to do 20 hours a week. I worked over 40.

In the interview, I mentioned how I already used the product every day and knew the ins and outs. I didn’t mention it at the time, but I prepped by watching Tyler’s podcast interviews on YouTube to better understand the trajectory of the company and the top priorities. I mentioned them all and was incredibly prepared. It was work upfront, before even getting the job. It pays off.

Hard work is always respectable. It’s something that makes people want to bet on a person. Not getting paid, came out of nowhere, but did all the work upfront? Clearly that person wants the job. How is that not appealing? If they’re going to bet on someone, why not that person?

Tyler, beehiiv’s CEO was answering the customer support tickets himself. I took that job, and for several months, he didn’t really have to worry about it. There were moments when he’d get pulled in, or have to teach me something, or when we’d swamped a few times before hiring anyone else. But, generally, support at the time was ‘handled.’

I didn’t mention that I was the best, or that I knew AI, or anything like this. I just said,

“I’ll take this off your plate, and you can go do CEO stuff” (in different words).

If you have a history of taking away people’s anxiety by handling complex problems, there will always be work for you (especially if those problems are worth a lot of money). My prior experience helped me speak to this in the interview even when it was in a different industry.

In any situation, I try to position myself so that if I’m on something, everyone else who’s familiar with it can say “oh, Darwin’s on it, we don’t have to worry about it.”

It’s a mix of a history of success, focus, accountability, and again, high-agency behaviour. In my opinion, this is the hardest thing to nail at a company growing fast with limited resources. It’s something I sometimes struggle with today, but it’s the most valuable.

Not there to “do the job,” but to make sure “nobody else every has to worry about it again.” is the way.

Done the work assigned? Great. But it can’t stop at just doing the work. Then what? Do you wait for the next assignment, or say “I’m done, what’s next?” This mindset took me from part-time to full-time in two weeks and earned 3 more promotions in 2.5 years.

Most people are waiting to be picked. Waiting for permission, for proof, for a job title that justifies stepping up.

But the people who get bet on? The ones that are 800% better than the average like McKinsey found?

They don’t wait. That’s the irony of all this. The ones who do more are more likely to get the opportunities. It’s about acting like someone worth betting on before anyone says yes.

It’s reducing anxiety, taking initiative, solving real problems, and doing the work like it already matters. It really does.

Imagine submitting faceless resumes 100 times and hoping yours get picked out of a massive stack (if the automated system even flags your resume as good).

So if you’re stuck, overlooked, underestimated.

And while the landscape is brutal like I said, it’s not that way for everyone. If you have it in you, there’s never been a better time to show someone how you’re the obvious choice. How a bet on you will produce massive returns. To prove someone right for taking a chance on you.

Or better yet.

Make the others regret not betting on you.

Thanks for reading!

Now for an ad from Levanta. Big thanks to them and the beehiiv ad network for sponsoring.