Forget the corporate ladder — winners take risks | Molly Graham (re-release)

85.575 - 109.2 Elise Hu

I will be there hosting a session of talks on the last day of the conference. And if you want to experience the thrill of watching these talks in person and enjoying all of the fun and awe-inspiring activities, dinners, and immersive experiences, you can actually join me at TED Next. It's not too late. To learn more, go to ted.com slash dailynext. That's ted.com slash dailynext.

109.541 - 112.645 Elise Hu

Hope to see you there. And now, on to Molly Graham's talk.

122.701 - 148.669 Molly Graham

There's a lot of pressure around what it takes to build a great career. And it all comes back to this idea that you're supposed to know what you want to do. It's an idea that I like to call the stairs. Here's how the stairs go. You show up in college, and you're supposed to know what you want to major in. That major is supposed to lead you to your first job.

148.902 - 176.58 Molly Graham

And then you get another job, and you get promoted and promoted and promoted forever. The best part about the stairs is safety and security. It feels like you know what you need to do to get ahead. The worst part of the stairs is that it's like a weird video game that you can get stuck inside of for years. The stairs will make you feel like your self-worth is tied to your title.

176.78 - 191.28 Molly Graham

or your last performance rating or your next promotion. But the truth is that the stairs are an illusion. These days, excellent careers are not built by excellent stair climbers.

281.847 - 308.888 Molly Graham

I was sitting in rooms with brilliant people asking very dumb questions. Six months into this job, I got the lowest performance rating of my entire life. I had so many moments when all I wanted to do was run back to the safety and security of the stairs. But about nine months in, something interesting happened. I had to lead a meeting. It sounds simple, but it was a big meeting.

309.349 - 337.947 Molly Graham

It was a complicated debate about a nuanced part of this project. I was successful, and I so vividly remember walking out of that meeting feeling like myself again. I had gone from feeling like a beginner in this new environment to feeling confident and capable. I spent another three years on this project, learning and growing, and on the other side of it, I was a completely different person.

338.888 - 362.871 Molly Graham

I was offered jobs that no one would have offered me if I had stayed in HR. That's the thing about jumping off cliffs. It doesn't just take you a couple flights up on the stairs. It's like a weird elevator that takes you to a whole new place. Cliff jumps teach you who you are and what you are capable of in ways that the stairs can never.

365.355 - 398.723 Molly Graham

To get good at jumping off cliffs, you have to get good at three things. The first is actually jumping off the cliff. After many years of coaching people through career decisions, I know that sometimes it is just not the right time to take a risk. But I can also tell you that most people do not stay stuck on the stairs out of necessity. They stay there out of fear.

400.424 - 427.005 Molly Graham

The trick is to learn to tell the difference between the kind of fear that says, I'm scared I might run out of money, which you should actually listen to, and the kind of fear that says, I'm scared I might fail, which you should take as a giant green flashing light to jump. Cliff jumps teach you what you are capable of in spite of fear.