The Investment Decision

We just released episode 2 of the new 21D Insider and Legacy program, Rebooting After a 2-Year Career Break… With Huge Visa Issues.

No large organization pays you for eleven years as a charity case. Yes, there are situations when entrepreneurs hire family members or treat early employees like family members, even though such employees do not bring value. But those are exceptions that prove the rule. People pay you when they are getting value.

For example, if you have eleven years of experience working in a rare manuscript recovery center, where you fix rare manuscripts, you must have some expertise, because they’ve kept you for eleven years. It’s not possible for you to have no expertise. You must have been doing something for eleven years.

And yet a member has written in to say the opposite about themselves.

We have released a new program. It is called “Rebooting After a 2 Year Career Break …with Huge Visa Issues.”

Here is the question: How do you most efficiently develop subject matter expertise later in your career when you feel that your experience does not translate into expertise? For context, I have eleven plus years of experience in the energy sector, primarily oil and gas. After a two-year career break, I’m targeting industry and consulting expert track roles. The challenge is not just catching up on recent developments, but also building the depth of knowledge and judgment expected at this level.

The member said “when you feel that your experience does not translate into expertise.” Well, that’s clearly a feeling, because your experience always translates into expertise. The only question is whether you have the ability to draw on that expertise, use it, monetize it, communicate it. But if you have experience, you have expertise. You may not know how to leverage it, but it is there.

So there is a disconnect between what the individual thinks the expertise is and what the market thinks. The market is saying you have expertise. We’ve paid you a salary, rewarded you, promoted you for eleven years. Major businesses do not do that if you don’t have expertise.

Then Michael says the question cannot be answered as written, and he shows you exactly why. What have you done in oil and gas? Because energy is also big. It’s shale, it’s solar, renewables, oil and gas. They sound similar, but they’re very different spaces. People think they’re pretty much the same, but they’re different beasts altogether. When you speak at a generalist level, we can’t give you specific advice, because all the information is generic. We need to know some details about your situation to give you more tailored advice.

If your resume or your LinkedIn describes eleven years the way this question describes eleven years, that section needs to be edited.

The member thinks the challenge is catching up on recent developments. Michael says you can read as much as you want about what’s happening in the oil and gas sector. You can read about the latest advances in procuring cargo ships to take oil from Kuwait or Saudi Arabia or Brazil or wherever it is. But there’s a fundamental difference between reading about the difficulties and working in a situation room for a company that is actually involved in the leasing and safely moving these tankers through some pretty dangerous parts of the world.

Noteworthy Highlight

Most companies do not have an AI strategy. They have an AI shopping list. A copilot here, an agent there, and a proud number for how many employees use the tool. It sounds good for now, when AI is still relatively new. It creates no value. An AI strategy is a functional strategy. Its one job is to serve the corporate strategy and widen the spread between the return on capital and its cost. The moment it stops doing that, growth stops creating value you and starts costing you. Read the full argument here.

Do not put pressure on reading up, Michael says. If you’re assuming that there’s somewhere a book that’s going to tell you exactly what it’s like, so that when you go back after your two-year break you’ll know everything, that book doesn’t exist. There’s a difference between reading up about the issues and being in an actual negotiation with someone who owns these super tankers, whereby different entities are bidding for the tankers, you’re working on a spot price mark that’s highly volatile, prices are changing daily. That’s a different skill set. You’re not going to have that skill set by reading.

Operating detail comes from operating, and you’re hired for operating detail.

So if you’re thinking, “I’m not sure, I’m not ready for this, I’ll take more time to catch up,” Michael explains what that thought actually costs you. There is a specific relationship between how long you are away and how long it takes to recover. Michael also says what happens in some roles when you are away for more than a few years, and the one condition under which you can still catch up. Most people are not willing to accept that condition.

Then, where to apply. The oil and gas sector is not like any sector in the world. It’s not homogenous. It’s not homogenous in maturity, skills, capabilities. Not every company is the best at everything, but basically in every part of the oil and gas value chain, there is a company that’s leading. Michael says that if you don’t believe you are the best at what you do, you have two choices here. One of them is the option almost everyone assumes is the softer landing. People will always say they have a weakness in their resume. They think, “If I go to a company that is not the best, it’ll be easier for me.” Michael’s answer to that is one word long, and then he tells you what actually happens to you once you are working for that company.

In this situation, a member made a precondition for themselves. They are saying that “I must first bring my expertise up to speed to match my experience, and then I can apply. And if I don’t bring my expertise up to match my experience, then maybe I shouldn’t apply, because who’s going to hire me?” That is a very dangerous way to think.

The question they need to ask: Are you willing not to apply because you’re behind, knowing that the longer you take to apply, the further behind you will be, which simply compounds your problem?

Now this member may be scared, unsure, and hesitant to apply. They may have problems around confidence. They may be anxious. They may have had a terrible experience in oil and gas. The bottom line is that the world is not going to wait for them. It doesn’t hold opportunities for you and say, “Hey, there’s this wonderful person who has eleven years’ experience and a two-year gap, let’s wait for them to send their resume.”

The fact that this member discounts their experience so much tells me the issue is not in your experience. Michael says where he thinks the issue actually resides, and he does it gently and without flinching. He then gives an instruction about the order in which you handle personal difficulty and professional action.

Noteworthy Highlight

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We are wrapping up both books and do not have any plans to run co-authored projects again. If you want to join the Executive or Lite versions of this project, email [email protected] or join above.

He also speaks about the mechanism that stops capable people from ever sending the resume. He gives it a single phrase. It describes something you have almost certainly done, and it explains why it felt so reasonable while you were doing it. Once you have that phrase, you will catch yourself doing it and can stop yourself in time.

Throughout the years, Michael has met many clients who tell him things like, “Michael, I’m just going back to my home country for one year, six months, twelve months, and I’ll figure it out.” He always answers with the same question. How hard was it for you to leave your home country? And he walks you through what they say back. The GMAT. The good MBA program. The visa. The lottery system. The cousin’s wedding they could not attend. The mother’s funeral they could not attend. Then he tells them what he tells every one of them, and what happens afterward. They always say, “No, it’ll all work out.” Michael has had this discussion with so many clients that he can tell you how often that turns out to be true.

Life is really short. You don’t get many chances to follow your dream and do what you want to do.

Michael shares what this member should do next. It takes him about thirty seconds to say, and it will be uncomfortable to follow.

In the second episode of this program, we further focus on client’s situation. And you may be in a similar place in life:

You’re about to make a decision, a career move, a relationship call, a leap you’ve been circling for months, and you’re going to ask yourself the wrong question.

You’re going to ask “can I make this work.” That’s not how investment decisions get made, and every decision that costs you time and money is an investment decision, whether or not you’ve been treating it that way.

Here’s what actually needs to be considered for a decision like this:

• Why “can I make this work” is the wrong question, and what to ask instead
• Why the person who wanted something five years ago isn’t the person deciding on it today, and why that gap changes everything
• Why some of the most accomplished people can’t enjoy anything they’ve achieved, and where that pattern actually comes from
• Why a lucky break is the beginning of the story, not the end of it, and why that matters more than talent does
• The one habit, borrowed from an old Friends episode, that separates people who build themselves up from people who quietly tear themselves down
• Why working hard for what you have isn’t a consolation prize, even though it feels like one when you compare yourself to people who make it look easy
• Why “give yourself options” beats a hard yes or a hard no, every time
• What it actually takes to secure something you’ve built, in a career, a relationship, a place, once you’ve built it

If any of this sounds like the conversation you’ve been having with yourself, you’re not the only one having it and episode 2 of this program can be very helpful for you.

If you have been circling our work for months, waiting until things settle down, waiting until the quarter closes, waiting until you feel more prepared to make use of it, waiting until your kid turns 2, that is the same precondition Michael covered in this program. There is no version of you six months from now who is better positioned to start. There is only a version who is six months further into the gap.

The full library, including this program, is available inside StrategyTraining.com. Insiders and Legacy members can go through it here.

And if what you actually need is someone to look at your specific situation, your resume, your gap, your visa timeline, the decision you keep re-opening at night and never closing, that is what Michael and I do within our executive coaching programs and more affordable express programs, Speak Without Limits and The MasterPlan Annual. Reply to this email to start the application to work with us.

Take care,

Kris Safarova

P.S. In Michael’s words, your options start narrowing when you get to your 40s, late 30s, and you’re always trying to stay ahead of your options. Do not let it become another thing you deal with later. If you are looking for more affordable coaching programs than our executive coaching, we have 2 such programs:

• Speak Without Limits is where to start if the gap is in how you communicate what you already know.
• MasterPlan Annual is where to start if the gap is that you cannot see the key parts of the whole board yet.

And if you are a senior leader, our executive coaching will likely be the best fit. Email [email protected] to discuss how we could potentially support you on your journey.