Why saying yes early in your career pays off later

There’s a version of career advice that often gets handed down: Find your passion early, specialize fast, build your personal brand. It’s tidy, and looks good on paper, but it bears almost no resemblance to how most successful careers actually unfold. Mine certainly didn’t go that way. What I’ve come to believe, after 25 years of leading technology companies through growth and transformation, is that the thing most likely to determine your trajectory isn’t your credentials or your clarity of vision. It’s your willingness to say yes, even before you feel ready. I left school at 16 without a grand plan. I wasn’t particularly academic and, like most 16-year-olds, I didn’t have a carefully mapped career path. So, saying yes to jobs that presented themselves was my first priority, no matter what they entailed. My first job was on Romford Market [in Havering, a London borough], selling bananas from a small barrow next to a fruit and vegetable stall. The days were early, the weather was cold, and the work was repetitive; suffice it to say, I wanted to move on from there as quickly as possible. Not long after, I said yes to a more exciting opportunity: taxi driver. I passed my driver’s test in the morning and was driving a taxi by the afternoon. In that role, I met every kind of person—happy people, angry people, distracted people, you name it. It was challenging work, but it taught me a skill that’s guided me throughout my life: how to build trust with someone in a very short amount of time. Saying yes creates opportunity At 21, I was driving taxis, had a young child, and wasn’t looking for a way out. Then one day, as I was driving a Ford executive to the airport, he asked me what I planned to do with my life. I told him I was planning on driving taxis. He asked whether I’d ever considered a career in computers. I didn’t have the background, the credentials, or the confidence to imagine myself in that world, but he gave me his card and told me to co