Antifragile Your Career

According to Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragile, the rate of change is accelerating in every area of our lives. It is unpredictable and interconnected. The pandemic that killed millions of people pulled back the covers to expose how many jobs and the economy as a whole is more fragile than any of us perceived.

Was your job or career interrupted? Were your finances stalled or eliminated by the virus? This sudden interruption to our daily lives was traumatic for so many people in more ways than one; loss of life, elimination of livelihood, reduction in income…for many people, this unpredictable event has been devastating personally and professionally.

This term “antifragile,” gives me pause as I evaluate how fragile my own business and career were revealed to be. As I am in human capital management, interruptions in job availability and displacements of this magnitude could be devastating. While the term fragile implies something that breaks under stress, antifragile, refers to something that becomes stronger under stress. When change and stress placed a heavy burden on every person and every industry, I chose to look at the situation from a new perspective: how could I ensure that I did not just survive the circumstances that I was given but rather become stronger? What could I do to “antifragile” my career and emerge in a better position than before?

As the world and economy begin to emerge from underneath the shroud that has hampered our progress, and shuttered many businesses, now is the time to implement all that is necessary to shield your career from future unpredictable events. While they may be difficult to predict, it is certain that as quickly as COVID-19 shut down the world, it is just as easy for other events to derail your career path.