In So Good They Can’t Ignore You, Cal Newport tries to answer the following question: “Why do some people end up loving what they do, while so many others fail at this goal?” He presents four rules to help you cultivate your passion and find love for what you do. For a mission-driven project to succeed it should be remarkable in two ways, 1) it must compel people to remark about it to others and 2) it must be launched in a venue that supports such remarking. Related Book Summaries The next big ideas in any field are found right beyond the current cutting edge in the “adjacent space” that contains the possible new combinations of existing ideas. Compelling careers often have complex origins that reject the simple idea that all you have to do is follow your passion.” Cal Newport shares the following three scientific conclusions for why some are satisfied with their work while many others are not: Rule #4 emphasizes that “mission is one of the most important traits you can acquire with your career capital.” Chapter Twelve: The Meaningful Life Of Pardis Sabeti

The First Control Trap – “the principle that control that is acquired without career capital is not sustainable” Cal argues that great missions are transformed into great successes as the result of using small and achievable projects, little bets, to explore the concrete possibilities surrounding a compelling idea. To have a mission is to have a unifying focus for your career. It is more general than a specific job and can span multiple positions. The second control trap is that control creates resistance. The point at which you have acquired enough career capital to get meaningful control over your working life, is exactly the point when you’ve become valuable enough that your current employer will try to prevent (resist) you from making this change. Think about it, having more control (e.g., a pay rise, more days off, leave, leaving) does not benefit your employer and based on this, Newport notions that you should expect employers to resist control. Rule 4) Think small, act big The law of supply and demand says that if you want these traits, you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return.This approach is “crucial for building a career that you love.” In contrast, most people approach their work using the Passion Mindset: Once you get to the cutting edge and discover a mission in the adjacent possible, you must go after it with zeal, a big action. Chapter 14: Missions Require Little Bets Supply and demand says that if you want these traits you need rare and valuable skills to offer in return. Think of these rare and valuable skills you can offer as your career capital. Newport ends his book on his perhaps weakest and most unoriginal argument: that finding a mission in your work can lead to ‘great satisfaction’.

The traits that can make your life interesting…had very little to do with intensive soul-searching.” If you start to see the major you choose in college as a matter of cosmic significance, you’ll be in trouble. Cal Newport shows you how to apply deliberate practice in your knowledge works using the five traits of a Craftsman: Regardless of what you do for a living, approach your work like a true performer. Chapter 5: The Power of Career Capital Yet, Newport continues to promote interesting ideas. The first is that a mission must be capital driven, in a sense, you can’t skip straight into a great mission without having mastery in your field.The second control trap warns that once you have enough career capital to acquire more control in your working life, you have become valuable enough to your employer that they will fight your efforts to gain more autonomy. The reason important discoveries often happen multiple times is that they only become possible once they enter the adjacent possible.