Michelle: A recent Gallup study found that nearly 90 percent of workers are 'not engaged' or 'actively disengaged' from their jobs. Mark: Ninety percent? That can't be right. That's basically everyone you know. That’s not just a case of the Mondays, that’s a full-blown epidemic of career misery. Michelle: It is. And the book we're talking about today argues it's not a crisis of laziness; it's a crisis of misdirection. We're all following an old, broken map. Today, we’re talking about the new roadmap to get back on track. Mark: I'm all ears. A new map is desperately needed. Michelle: That roadmap comes from Jenny Blake's book, Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One. Mark: Jenny Blake... wasn't she at Google? It's fascinating that this idea comes from someone inside one of the world's most sought-after companies. You'd think that's the last place people would want to pivot from. Michelle: Exactly! She ran their career development programs and saw firsthand that even at the 'best' jobs, people hit plateaus and feel stuck. She took the classic Silicon Valley startup concept of a 'pivot'—a strategic change in direction when something isn't working—and brilliantly adapted it for individual careers. Mark: So, it’s not about just quitting. It’s about a strategic shift. I like that. It sounds less terrifying. Michelle: It’s about making your next move your best move, by being deliberate and smart. And it starts with a fundamental shift in how we even think about what a career is.

Michelle: When you think of a 'career path,' Mark, what image comes to mind? Mark: A ladder, of course. You start at the bottom, you climb rung by rung, you don't look down, and you hope nobody above you kicks you in the face. Michelle: That's the image for most of us. But Blake argues that the career ladder is not just outdated, it's been dismantled. The average job tenure is now just a few years. Corporate loyalty is a relic. The ladder is gone, and we're now in a career jungle gym. Mark: A jungle gym. I like that. It’s more creative, more chaotic. You can go sideways, up, down, you can hang out for a bit... it feels more exploratory. Michelle: Precisely. And in a jungle gym, your goal isn't just to get to the top. It's about the movement itself. This ties into a core idea in the book: the shift from prioritizing 'High Net Worth' to 'High Net Growth.' Mark: Meaning, learning and experience over just a bigger paycheck? Michelle: Exactly. She cites this incredible study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton that found, after about $75,000 a year in income, more money doesn't significantly increase your day-to-day happiness. So if money isn't the ultimate goal, what is? For many, it's growth, impact, and learning. Mark: That resonates. I think we all know people who make a ton of money but are just... bored. They're miserable. Blake calls boredom a 'fulfillment deficiency,' which is such a great phrase. Michelle: It is. And she shares some powerful stories of people who made that exact trade-off. There’s this one guy, Adam Chaloeicheep. He was a successful creative director in Chicago, had the great job, the title, everything. But he was completely burned out. Mark: I know that feeling. The 'successful but secretly dying inside' feeling. Michelle: He felt it so strongly that he did something radical. He quit his job, sold almost everything he owned, and moved to a monastery in Thailand to study meditation for eight months. Mark: Wow. Okay, that is a pivot. That’s not just changing departments. That’s changing continents and consciousness. Michelle: It was a total reset. And when he came back, he didn't just go back to his old life. He realized his passions were at the intersection of fashion, technology, and brand strategy. So he went to grad school at Parsons and then founded his own company in New York, ABC Design Lab, where he's now thriving. He chose growth over the safe, known path. Mark: That's an amazing story, but it also sounds like a story for a twenty-something with no mortgage and no kids. Is this 'High Net Growth' mindset just for the young and unattached? Michelle: That's a fair question, and Blake addresses it. She tells the stories of John Hill and Bud Bilanich, two guys approaching their sixties. Everyone was asking them about retirement. Mark: The classic, "So, when are you hanging it up to go play golf?" Michelle: Right. And they both said, essentially, "No, thanks." They had no interest in traditional retirement. John, who was a CIO, took on his biggest role ever as a COO at a global software company. And Bud, a consultant, pivoted his entire business online so he could keep working but spend more time at home. They weren't stopping; they were just changing the way they climbed the jungle gym. Mark: Okay, I like that. It’s not about age, it’s about attitude. It’s about seeing your career as this living, breathing thing you can shape at any point, not a sentence you have to serve until you're 65. Michelle: That's the core mindset. Pivot is the new normal. The choice, as Blake puts it, is to either pivot or get pivoted. You either manage the change, or the change will manage you.

Mark: I get the mindset. I'm sold on the jungle gym. But 'just pivot' on its own sounds like a bumper sticker, and potentially terrible advice. How do you actually do it without crashing and burning? Michelle: This is where the book becomes a real-world manual. Blake lays out a four-stage method that’s all about de-risking the process. It’s not about a blind leap of faith; it’s about being a scientist of your own career. Mark: A scientist. Okay, I'm intrigued. What's the first stage? Michelle: Stage one is Plant. Before you look for what's next, you have to ground yourself in what's now. You double down on what's already working. What are your core values? What are your existing strengths? What's your financial situation? Mark: So you're not starting from a blank slate. You're taking inventory. It’s like a chef checking the pantry before deciding what to cook. Michelle: Perfect analogy. You can't build a rocket ship if you don't know what parts you already have. This stage is about building a strong foundation. Then, once you're planted, you move to the next two stages, which I think are the most brilliant part of the process: Scan and Pilot. Mark: Scan and Pilot. Sounds like we're flying a plane. Michelle: It's very much like that. Scanning is about exploring—talking to people, researching new fields, identifying skills you might need. But it's the Pilot stage that's the game-changer. A pilot, in this context, is a small, low-risk experiment to test a new direction. Mark: So, not quitting your job to become a baker, but maybe selling sourdough to your neighbors on weekends to see if you even like it? Michelle: Exactly! Blake uses the analogy of a television pilot. A TV network doesn't want to risk millions on a full season of a show without knowing if people will watch it. So what do they do? Mark: They make one episode. The pilot. They test it with audiences, see the reaction, and then decide whether to commit. Michelle: That's the Pivot Method in a nutshell. You run small, real-world tests to get data on what you enjoy, what you're good at, and what the market wants. This isn't just a side hustle; it can happen inside your current job. There's a fantastic story about a woman named Amy Schoenberger. She was a senior strategist at a PR firm, feeling uninspired. Mark: The classic career plateau. Michelle: Right. But she didn't want to leave the company. Around that time, social media was just emerging as a force in PR, but most of her senior colleagues were hesitant, seeing it as a low-status task. Mark: They thought it was for interns. Michelle: Pretty much. So Amy volunteered. She piloted her pivot by taking on all the social media and blogger outreach projects nobody else wanted. She taught herself, she experimented, and she quickly became the go-to expert in the entire firm. Mark: Ah, so she found an unmet need and made herself indispensable. She didn't have to leave to pivot. Michelle: She didn't! Her pilot was so successful that the company created a brand-new role for her: Director of Digital Entertainment. She got a promotion, more fulfilling work, and stayed at the company she loved. She launched her new career path without ever updating her resume. Mark: That's brilliant. It completely reframes risk. The risk isn't in trying something new; the risk is in not trying, in staying put while the world changes around you. This 'pilot' idea is like A/B testing your life. It makes so much more sense than the dramatic 'follow your passion' leap. Michelle: It's all about gathering intelligence. Once your pilots give you enough positive data—you enjoy the work, you're good at it, there's a demand—then you move to the final stage: Launch. The launch is the big move, but by the time you get there, it's not a terrifying jump into the void. It's a confident step onto a path you've already tested.

Mark: This all sounds incredibly smart, methodical, and empowering. But Michelle, I have to ask the question that's probably on a lot of listeners' minds... Who can actually afford to do this? Michelle: That's the million-dollar question, isn't it? Mark: It is. All these stories, even Amy's, seem to involve people with a certain level of career capital. They're creative directors, PR strategists, people with skills that are in demand. What about someone working two jobs just to pay rent? Or someone in a field that's shrinking, not growing? Do they have a 'runway' to fund? Michelle: You're hitting on the most significant and valid criticism of the book. And it's something critics and readers have pointed out. The book is written from a perspective that assumes a degree of privilege. Blake talks about funding your runway, which implies you have the means to save, or that you have the time and energy to run 'pilots' after your day job. Mark: Which many people simply don't. For a lot of folks, the main concern isn't 'fulfillment deficiency,' it's 'rent deficiency.' Michelle: Absolutely. And the book doesn't fully address that reality. It's primarily a guide for knowledge workers, for people who have a foundation of skills, education, and a professional network to leverage. It's not a manual for someone trying to escape precarious, low-wage work with no safety net. Mark: So, is the advice useless for them? Or is there a way to adapt it? Michelle: I think that's the key. You have to adapt the principles, even if you can't execute the full method. Maybe your 'pilot' isn't starting a side business. Maybe it's using a free online platform to learn one new skill. Just one. Maybe your 'scan' isn't networking with industry leaders, but having one conversation with someone in a slightly different role at your company. Mark: So the scale of the pivot changes based on your circumstances. For a CEO, a pivot might be launching a new company. For a cashier, a pivot might be completing an online certificate in bookkeeping. Michelle: Exactly. The core idea of making small, strategic moves to improve your position is universal. The book's weakness is that its examples don't always reflect that universality. It's a fantastic guide for its target audience, but it's important to acknowledge who that audience is. It’s a tool, and like any tool, it works best in certain conditions. Mark: That feels like a much more honest and useful way to look at it. It’s not a magic bullet for everyone, but the underlying logic—plant, scan, pilot, launch—is a powerful way to think about change, no matter how small.

Michelle: And that really brings us to the heart of it. When you strip it all away, the biggest takeaway from Pivot isn't a four-step plan. It's the profound idea that your career is not a single, monumental decision that you either get right or wrong. Mark: It's a series of experiments. A portfolio of pilots. Michelle: Yes. And that reframes failure entirely. The book won an Axiom Business Book Award, and I think it's because it gives people permission to experiment. It replaces the fear of failure with something Blake calls FONT. Mark: FONT? Michelle: The Fear Of Not Trying. She argues that's the real fear that should drive us. The regret that comes from staying stuck, from wondering 'what if,' is far more painful than the setback from a pilot that didn't work out. A failed pilot is just data. Staying put is a quiet surrender. Mark: I love that. The Fear of Not Trying. That’s going to stick with me. So, if there's one thing a listener could do this week, inspired by this, what would it be? It's not 'plan a massive pivot.' Michelle: Definitely not. I think the most accessible first step is to just 'scan.' Forget the other stages for a moment. Just open your aperture. What's one small thing you're genuinely curious about? It doesn't have to be work-related. It could be anything. Mark: And maybe have one conversation. Not a networking meeting, not asking for a job. Just a 15-minute coffee, virtual or real, with someone who is doing something you find even remotely interesting. Just to ask them what their world is like. Michelle: That's a perfect pilot. A conversation pilot. Low-risk, high-potential for learning. And we'd love to hear about it. If you try a tiny pilot experiment this week, let us know. We're always curious to see how these ideas play out in the real world. Mark: Because the only move that matters... is your next one. Michelle: This is Aibrary, signing off.