During my recent job search, I spent a lot of time reflecting on my career. Specifically, my past experiences, how they tied together and how they prepared me for future roles.

In particular, I kept returning to David Perell’s post titled “Hugging the X-Axis.” The core thesis of the article is that we generally undervalue commitment and overvalue optionality, not just in our careers but across many aspects of our lives. Optionality is hugging the X-axis; building expertise within a domain is climbing the Y-axis. The former (changing roles and industries every X years) provides novelty. The latter (holding certain aspects consistent over a long time horizon) provides a deeper meaning and allows for exponential growth curves.

Around the same time, I listened to Justin Mares (Founder of Kettle & Fire, Perfect Keto, etc.) on the Moth Minds podcast. At one point in the conversation, he mentioned this concept of being mission-driven and obsessed with a specific problem (lightly edited for clarity).

I have friends that are like that, [ones] that are much more mission-oriented toward solving one problem. [They’re] the ones that are the most interesting to me…I will back and support the first company if that fails, the second company, you just know that they’re going to be operating in the same space trying to solve the same problem for probably the rest of their career.

This aligned well with Perell’s post. Mares was effectively talking about climbing the Y-axis. He’s a perfect example of someone that has done this in the health and wellness space.

This whole concept also overlapped well with another book that has greatly influenced my career thinking—So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport. Newport’s core idea is that you shouldn’t pursue your passion in your career. Instead, adopt what he calls the “craftsman mindset.” Perfect your craft and build skills over a long time horizon. These “rare and valuable skills” as he calls them lead to fulfillment and passion in your career. You don’t start with passion; you get there as a result of committing to doing the work over a long time horizon (e.g. climbing the Y-axis).

Thinking about inspiring individuals in my own life, they certainly exemplify the Y-axis mentality. Matt Mullenweg’s commitment to WordPress and open source software. Derek Flanzraich’s commitment to making wellness more accessible. Michael Alexis’ commitment to making child slavery his life’s work. They’re all mission-oriented to the core and have a personal moonshot that is infectious.

This was the backdrop in my mind as I reflected on my own career.

I’ve been fortunate to have a wide breadth of experiences. I’ve worked for pre-Seed, 10-person startups and Series D, 1,600-person scale-ups. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in consumer SaaS and also worked on Enterprise-level and developer-focused products. Products spanned CMS tools, API platforms, and fintech. In many ways, I considered myself a generalist. I had a core foundational skillset that I could flex depending on the situation.

I began to wonder if this generalist mindset was at odds with climbing the Y-axis. Ultimately, I’ve come to three realizations.

Commitment is necessary for a fulfilling career.

In Drive, his book on motivation, Daniel Pink introduced three requirements for an engaging workplace. Mastery was one of them (along with autonomy and relatedness).

Mastery within any domain takes years of work and inevitably comes with successes and failures. Commitment is a contract with yourself to push through the failures and continue putting in the effort. This struggle to improve provides meaning in and of itself. Pulling a quote from Carol Dweck:

Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it. It would be an impoverished existence if you were not willing to value things and commit yourself to working toward them.

Besides developing your own expertise within a given domain, commitment does two things:

• It gives your career a legible story. Prospective hiring managers reviewing your resume are trying to piece together your career narrative. Commitment to a few dimensions gives your narrative shape and structure.
• It builds your unique value prop. Lots of Engineering Managers are strong in backend technologies. Fewer are strong in backend technologies with a deep passion for fintech and a dozen years of experience launching credit cards. The former makes you an interesting candidate in the application pool. The latter leads to opportunities finding you.

There are many dimensions on the Y-axis.

When thinking about commitment, it’s easy to find examples like Matt (mentioned above). He’s been working on WordPress and open source software for over 20 years. It’s his life’s work. I call this “mission commitment”. It’s the most obvious and inspiring dimension.

What if you’re not enlivened by a specific mission? I’ve come to realize there are many dimensions for commitment. For example:

• Industry – Certain industries require expertise. Fintech is one. Healthcare is another. Over several years, you learn the intricacies and rules that allow you to get things done. Matthew Goldman of CardsFTW is an example. It’s hard to find anyone as interested in credit/debit cards as Matthew.
• Function – This is perhaps the most obvious because it’s visible in the career ladder. Start as a customer support agent, progress to manager, move to senior manager, etc. Over time, grow your level of responsibility and depth within a specific area of the business. My friend Mercer provides example. Her commitment to the CX function is inspiring, and she’s moved across industries while remaining laser focused.
• Team Size – Work across several companies in the Seed/Series A stage and learn the best ways to organize a team, navigate the org, and ship meaningful work. As an example, Molly Graham defines one of her strengths in “companies that are scaling past the 50 employee mark, usually between 50-500 employees.” There’s a lot of value in seeing the same stage over and over again.
• Technical Stack – Develop a deep expertise within a certain language or framework, learning the intricacies and quirks to a master level. Guillermo Rauch is an example in the JavaScript community (ultimately, he founded Vercel).

There are undoubtedly more dimensions. Identifying your specific dimensions and building your career narrative is a creative act. I think of it like puzzle pieces you’re putting together over time.

Careers are long.

Will Larson’s post on “A forty-year career” drives this point home. Particularly in tech, we think about quarterly roadmaps and yearly plans. Success often looks like making it to the next fundraise. It’s harder to lift your head up and look at longer time horizons. From Will:

How would I approach my work differently if focused on growth and engagement, and if I measured eras not in equity and IPOs but instead in decades? I’d focus on a small handful of things that build together, with each making the others more impactful as they compound over time.

Your career is longer than you think. This has two consequences.

First, optimize for competence across many dimensions early on. Then, pursue expertise after you’ve developed competence across a wide number of contexts.

Second, think of your career on a 40-year timeline. Optimize for the long haul. Take incremental steps in the same direction, gathering prestige and expertise along the way. It can feel slow, like a slog, but that’s the whole point of commitment. Sticking with a specific dimension even when it’s frustrating, difficult, or not quite as sexy as the “new” thing.