What I learned from my first three years as an executive

There’s an apocryphal Mark Twain quote that goes something like, “When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.” When I was a mere 21 year old IC at a tech company, I thought the executives in charge were idiots who got most things wrong. Now, many years and my own management experience under my belt, I realize the level of my naiveté. I’ve now been an “executive” for about three years across a couple of companies. I’m really not a natural at this stuff, and had to learn every lesson painfully. Here’s five of the most surprising things I learned during that time. Thanks for reading Working Assumptions! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Give up getting an “A” on your work, you’re an executive generalist I started my career as a generalist, and then realized that I’d need to deeply specialize in order to do what I wanted to do. I went from “bu

There’s an apocryphal Mark Twain quote that goes something like, “When I was 17, my father was so stupid, I didn't want to be seen with him in public. When I was 24, I was amazed at how much the old man had learned in just 7 years.” When I was a mere 21 year old IC at a tech company, I thought the executives in charge were idiots who got most things wrong. Now, many years and my own management experience under my belt, I realize the level of my naiveté. I’ve now been an “executive” for about three years across a couple of companies. I’m really not a natural at this stuff, and had to learn ever