10 things your parents never told you about work (but probably should have):

You Won't Love What You Do Confucious lied. He said: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” You set yourself up for failure if you buy it. Pick jobs where you're competent and make a meaningful impact. Then work every day of your life.

A Different Job Won't Make You Happy If you can't find a way to be happy in your current job, chances are the next one won't make you any happier (for long). If you surrender your happiness to external circumstances, You'll never find it. Be happy where you are.

Great To Work With > Doing Great Work My formula for career success is simple: Do great work and be great to work with. But if you have to choose one, Intentionally find ways to be great to work with. When push comes to shove, the jerks and trouble makers are first to go.

If You're Not Learning, You're The Problem It's easy to sit and wait for others to take an interest in your development. When they don't, you blame them for your stagnation. But the truth is, your growth is your job. If you're not learning and growing, do something about it.

Chess Players Win As a leader, I'm often surprised by how much people suck at seeing the bigger picture. The lowest level career skills are tactical. It's the strategic thinkers - those who can see 2 or 3 moves ahead - who advance. Play chess while others play checkers.

Things Work Out My business ordered a material we didn't need and had to take delivery. It was painful. 6 months later, supply chain issues threatened to shut down production. That wrong material came to the rescue. Big mistakes can become wins. Relax. Give it time.

Whatever You Make Isn't Enough If you're only in your job for the money, You're a bad employee. Yes, you should be fairly compensated. But if you're only showing up to get paid, what you get paid won't ever be enough. If you can't find a better reason to show up, move on.

You'll Always Have A Boss It doesn't matter what you do for a living, you'll always have a boss. It may not be captured on an org chart, But you can't escape having people you report to. Whether it's a customer, a board, or a spouse, everybody's got a boss. Get used to it.

Today's Excellence = Tomorrow's Expectation Fair or unfair, your big accomplishment this year becomes the new baseline expectation for next year. Will you use it as an excuse to hold back? Or as motivation to keep pushing? Nothing says more about who you are than your answer.

Thanks for investing your time in my thread. If it helped you, I'd be grateful if you'd: •Retweet the first tweet so others find it too •Follow me @wdmorrisjr ⏤ it encourages me to keep writing!

@wdmorrisjr We're all replaceable. True. BUT with a cost. As a manager, replacing a motivated intern is not the same as replacing an intern. Invest in yourself. Make this cost high. Build positive perception. Increase your value and negotiation power.

@wdmorrisjr Why not craft skills to be harder for replacement?

@wdmorrisjr This is the most valuable lesson of all. Sometimes it’s actually a bonus (speaking from a CEOs point of view) because it forces you to possibly completely re-engineer that section of your company and the way you do business. Fresh outlook.

@wdmorrisjr Everyone is replaceable. Coming to that realization has been the most important development of my career. I’ve enjoyed my work much more and am more willing to ask for what I want

@wdmorrisjr True, at work, relationships, you're replaceable.