Seventeen years ago, I left my senior leadership role at National Australia Bank. The reason seventeen is important is that I spent the same amount of time working at NAB. Yep, seventeen years in and seventeen years out… that makes me thirty-four. Hang on, I started when I was twenty. Anyway, moving along. I thought I might share what I have learnt in the past seventeen years.

Seventeen Things

So, in no particular order, here are the seventeen things that I know to be true for me.

1. Don’t wait to be good at something before you do it.
2. Put effort into maintaining and strengthening relationships.
3. Be yourself, don’t pretend to be someone else… unless you are a dickhead, then pretend to be someone else.
4. Be easy and fun to work with.
5. It will be alright in the end. If it’s not alright… it’s not the end.
6. Outsource stuff that you are not good at that does not give you energy.
7. Discuss price openly at initial sales meetings – written proposals are overrated.
8. Don’t leave a meeting with work to do (see above for case in point).
9. Invest in your own professional development and keep investing in you.
10. Avoid doing something out of pure obligation to others… it rarely ends well.
11. Take control of your brand.
12. Get good at saying yes to opportunities.
13. Get better at saying no to stuff that doesn’t excite you.
14. If you want a life by design, then design it and stay true to it (see above two previous points).
15. Know your non-negotiables. If it is important to you, prioritise it and put it in your diary.
16. Actively maintain your energy… know what works for you and what doesn’t.
17. Busy is overrated. Bored is undervalued.

Your Turn

I would love to know which of the statements above resonated with you.