The only way to earn authority is to take responsibility without asking.
Growing up I thought authority, like many other things, would be handed to you once you’ve jumped through enough hoops. I could not have been more wrong.
In his 2015 Inbound Keynote, Seth Godin used one of the best props I’ve ever seen.
“This is a spot. And what it means to do this work is that you have to be ‘on the spot’. You have to be the person who says ‘I am going to do this.’ Not the person who says ‘this is my job to do it,’ not the person who says ‘the Dummies book said I could do this,’ not the person who says ‘well this is what everyone else is doing.’ Because the work that matters, the work we have the opportunity to make is never work that other people could do.”
This is the way to achieve anything you want in life. Because people love no one more than the everyday hero who shows up and says: “Look, I took care of this.”
In fact, when others see you voluntarily take responsibility and handle it, they’ll throw more right at you. That’s how you get promoted. That’s how you get hired. That’s how you make sales.
I was reading a lot of James Altucher’s posts when I started my internship at BMW M in 2014. I tried to live his philosophy of overdelivering. So whenever I thought doing something was useful or would make other peoples’ lives easier, I just did it.
After 6 months, I organized 50+ people workshops, managed part of the fleet and sent $100,000-cars thousands of miles around the globe to marketing events.
I took both the tasks that were given to me and the ones I saw as a chance to prove one thing, over and over again: You can rely on me to get this done.
I didn’t always do a perfect job and I made many mistakes along the way. But I got it done.
Whatever you want to do, don’t waste the precious time of growing up waiting for someone to give you the authority to. They’ll never show up.
Who cares if you’re 43, 22, 18 or 12? If you want something, go take responsibility for it. Don’t ask. Just do it. Stand on the spot.
Because if it’s work that matters, it’s work only you can do. And we rely on you to get it done.
