There’s a lot to be said for playing the role of the job you want versus the job you have, especially if you’re young and worried about looking too young for a promotion or high rank. Brian Fenty would know. While the average Fortune 500 CEO graduated 57 years oldhe took over TodayTix in 2017 when he was just 31 years old.
Under his leadership, the theater ticketing platform partnered with Netflix for live streaming Stranger Things: The First Shadowacquired Secret Cinema and Goldstar and now has over 25 million users on the app.
Although Fenty says he initially struggled with being taken seriously by colleagues and investors because of his age, the 38-year-old now knew better than to pretend to be wise beyond his years, as it had backfired in the past – and his the experience offers valuable leadership lessons for the young and ambitious.
“There’s a fine line between faking it ’til you make it and learning it and doing it well,” he says. Luck.
Recalling his early career at private equity firm Hamilton Investment Partners, where he later became its youngest managing director, Fenty recalls a time when he was asked to complete a task he had never heard of.
“I was asked to create discounted cash flow, but I was too embarrassed to say, I don’t know what that is,” he says. Instead of getting advice from someone more experienced, Fenty pulled an all-nighter, called friends from other firms, and tried to learn how to do the task himself.
In the end, it left him exhausted and no closer to completing the task at hand, which he said required “real application.”
“I burned out and let my team down by not asking for help,” he concluded, adding that the experience taught him an early lesson in how to play to his strengths rather than his weaknesses.
“My secret weapon is I always use helium in any situation – and it’s my code word for optimism,” he adds. “I always try to use a problem-solving lens: How do we change this? Is it worth turning around?
Instead of focusing on what you can’t do, Fenty’s advice to young ambitious workers is simple: surround yourself with people who fill gaps in your skills, and ask for help when you need it so you can focus on achieving your goals. areas you need. Naturally, you are already doing well.
That’s why Fenty recommends that those who want to advance their careers should make every effort to find their “superpower” as soon as possible.
“Take advantage of it as early as possible,” he says. “And if you do something that doesn’t use it, you’re wasting time.”
“You can learn any job,” he doubles down. “If you’re in a job where you’re learning things that don’t allow you to navigate what makes you unique, you’re going to waste a lot of time.”
Don’t sell yourself short
While Fenty doesn’t recommend lying to yourself (or others) about where your skills fall short, he does encourage doing your best.
“Never tell yourself I can’t do it,” he says, and that’s the secret to why he’s doing so well for his age, adding that he himself had a “vision” for his future and just went for it. him.
His advice for climbing the corporate ladder echoes that of Pret A Manger CEO Pano Christou. Like Fenty, Christou is one of the few executives to gain access to the C-suite more than a decade earlier than the average executive (he became CEO at age 40).
Christou now heads Britain’s largest sandwich chain and he reiterated that he got to where he is today by saying yes to opportunities he may not have been fully prepared for, but still believing in himself.
“Whenever new, bigger opportunities were presented to me, I always took them – I never said no – even if it really put me in the forefront,” he said. Luck. “I may not have been ready for a while, but I always want to step up and give it the best chance and it worked out well.”
Likewise, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon went from unloading trailers for $6.50 an hour to becoming the company’s youngest CEO since its founder. He said he learned the ropes by often filling in for his boss.
“One of the reasons I got these opportunities was because I would raise my hand when my boss was out of town and he or she was visiting stores or something,” he said recently.
The CEO added that he will even offer to replace his boss in meetings, regardless of whether he is ready to answer all the questions that arise.
Additionally, instead of brushing off questions beyond his salary and waiting for his manager to return, he proactively responded with, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out quickly and get back to you.”