In his book, Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, Nassim Taleb, a best-selling author, posits that unless something is constantly challenged by the natural order, things tend to stay fragile and to break. On the other hand if the natural perturbing forces constantly challenge such things they become more robust, intelligent, and better with time and survive longer. In a way Taleb is reframing the age-old Darwin’s statement: Only the adaptable survive!

Taleb constructed the word Untifragile to convey a specific meaning to what he had in mind. Many think that “tough” or “strong” are adequate words to convey what is unbreakable as a good choice, but these words do not covey an ability to learn from perturbations to become more robust with time and intelligent with experience.

 In his book Taleb points to things and systems that grow big by virtue of their “success,” but how they are not able to adapt to changes and are destined to the scrap pile. Examples abound: The US Postal Service (USPS), which generated some $90B/Yr. in revenues and profits to match even when emails were emerging and the Internet was still young, refused to adapt to the emergent forces. It is losing money today to the tune of some $15.9B, with rapidly shrinking operations, lay-offs, and an uncertain future.

Another good example of an Antifragile framework is our own immune system: If you expose it early to all kinds of pathogens it has the ability to develop corresponding antigens and keep the body from contracting those diseases. But, if you protect yourself in a sterile environment and grow in it as an adult, just imagine the problems your body will face if you are suddenly exposed to multiple pathogens out of your control.

 The same plight is said to a problem with “bulldozer” parents (Vs. Helicopter parents). These parents “bulldoze” away any obstacles their kids face without letting them develop strategies to deal with them to prepare them to overcome those obstacles. But, by letting the kids deal with those with some guidance can shape those same kids into antifragile human beings as they grow up to face the ever-hostile world!

An exact opposite example of Antifragile is how honeybees are being exploited to pollinate crops these days. Because of dwindling population (and species) of bees beekeepers manage large bee colonies and move them in truck to farms where they are needed. These beekeepers then let these colonies stay with a particular crop for months at a time to pollinate and then they move to another location for another crop of the same type. What this operation has done to the bees is that they are fed on just one type of pollen throughout this entire period without offering them any variety of pollen on which they thrive, which makes them considerably less productive and more stressed. They have been forced to become fragile by how they are treated and what they are fed time and time again. Now you know why their species are thus dwindling.

 Now that we have seen both, Fragile and Antifragile examples, extending the Antifragile concept to one’s career we can conclude that “stable” jobs are bad for you career!

 Why is that?

 The logic of reasoning is simple: a stable job (think of all those working for the USPS doing the same thing year in and year out) gives you a false sense of security. Thus when the job does end unexpectedly, you cannot find alternate ways to re-employ yourself. Who can forget the story of a machinist, who was laid off during a downturn, after doing the exact same job for 35 years? He first refused to accept an alternative to finding himself employment. Finally, he found himself a job as a sales person. The night before the first day on the new job he was found dead (at 53 years of age) of a heart failure in his sleep. That night he had expressed to his wife his anxiety over how to be a sales person in his new job!

So, if you feel secure in your current job remind yourself of the possibility that you need to immunize yourself against fragility and become antifragile. In my own case I was first laid off when I was head of engineering of a high-tech company when I was 48 (some 28 years back!). Taking stock of the situation I decided that I was not going back into engineering for the fear that although I could find another job at 48, when I asked myself the question: what I’d do if this repeated at 58, I did not have a clear answer. That is when I decided to change my career. Since then I have gone through two more lay-offs and four different careers (I am currently in my fifth career, always thinking of my sixth). Such changes are hard to contemplate, but are easier to implement if you set your mind to them. Besides, such opportunities allow you to uncover your own strengths and make you antifragile.

So, what are some strategies that can help you make your career antifragile and let you take charge to manage it on your own terms? Here is my guidance:

1. Understand the difference between “Flow” and routine work. Flow is when you are constantly challenging yourself to up your game by constantly taking on challenging tasks or assignments. Routine work is something you can do half-awake! (watch Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, TED 2004: Talk). Real learning comes from getting in the flow and constantly upping your game.
2. Do not just take on given assignments; seek challenging assignments even when you know that you may not be able to carry them out all by yourself. Funny, once you take on such assignments with the blessing from your superiors help starts showing up in unusual ways (you boss does not want to look bad giving you something they could not manage!)
3. Network and associate with those who “make it happen.” Years ago (1970s) I still remember seeing a large billboard on Hwy 101 near Sunnyvale, CA: “Some make it happen; Others watch it happen; and the rest wonder what happened! Join our team at AMD and Make it Happen!” Always be on the team that makes it happen!
4. Continue to challenge yourself by taking on new topics to learn and new risks to take on how you advance your game and up your “Flow.” You’d be surprised how much more engaged and alive you feel when you make this your way of living.
5. Keep your network active and growing. Strong network is the one within your own area of work. A weak network is the one outside your immediate area of work. Start growing your weak network in the area that you want to pursue as your next career/job. In major career transitions it is the weak network that is more helpful. Your strong network is often unable to see beyond what they already know about you!
6. Learn how to learn from your failures. If you have not failed a few times in undertaking new risks then you haven’t reached out far enough to test your potential. I find that people often underestimate what they can achieve and overestimate what people around them may think if they fail!
7. No matter how successful you are in an endeavor do not assume that it will continue unabated. Always look for perturbations—small and big—to adjust your thinking about what is to come and act accordingly. Here, a little paranoia can save you!
8. Find someone to mentor as you embark on your transition. You’ll learn much by mentoring, while you give something valuable to someone who could benefit from it!
9. Uncover your inner genius and leverage that to re-package your value proposition in a new direction every time you want to re-invent yourself.
10. Change employers every 3-5 years, change jobs every 5-7 years, and change careers every 10 or so years.

Making your career roadmap Antifragile is not easy but in today’s fast-changing economy it is a sine qua non!

Good luck!