It's time: Introducing the 3 Navigation Laws

Hi everyone, this is a very big day for Career River. You have been so encouraging and patient as I've used this newsletter to refine and build out this framework.

Today is the day it all comes together. I've combed through 150+ interviews to discover how people faced crisis moments in their careers. What I've found is that it doesn't come down to having the right credentials or connections. It's not about grinding or climbing or shoving others out of the way.

Simply put, those who find their way forward act as Navigators. And their insights led me to the Three Navigation Laws of the Career River.

1. Progress Is Dynamic
2. Discovery Requires Uncertainty
3. Impact Feeds An Ecosystem

For the next few weeks, we're going to explore each of these in turn. As always, I welcome your feedback, questions, and suggestions. Many of you contributed your stories to this research, and I cannot thank you enough.

Let's get started by meeting Alice. We connected on LinkedIn a few weeks ago, and as we talked, I realized her story offers a great example of how to put these laws into practice.

To this day, Alice Farella Monti won’t set foot on the Milan street where her former company had its office. 

When she joined the cosmetics company in her 20s, it had seemed like a step in the right direction – an opportunity that came with a 30 percent increase in salary and the chance to work as an international brand manager overseeing the Italian market. 

But what she found there – a managing partner with a track record of harassment who would scream and throw things in his office, and an overall approach to selling beauty products that didn’t match her values – was no dream. 

“I said, ‘I don’t want to stay here.’ My body talked to me, I had almost a panic attack,” she said. “I cannot stay in this environment. It’s killing me.”

At the time, she felt guilty for the “mistake” of joining the company, and afraid that any hiring manager would judge her for leaving quickly. Now, when she thinks about the moment when she quit, she says, “thank God.”

“Thank God, because otherwise I would have been trapped in a life that probably was not meant to be for me,” she said. 

Farella Monti would go on to launch her own business, eventually turning a speech on what she’d learned from her unexpected journey into a book, podcast, keynote and retreat celebrating what she calls “illinearity.”

Her story, along with those of the many other professionals around the world who shared their journeys with me, shows there can be beauty in getting a bit lost, if we can transform those experiences into strategic exploration. It starts with the first Navigation Law.

Law #1: Progress is Dynamic

From corporate girl to unplanned entrepreneur

Farella Monti had seen how her parents built stable careers rising through the ranks over decades at the same company. Starting out, she believed if she could find a good organization where she could grow, she’d find success. But it wasn’t that simple. And at age 30 when she decided to quit the cosmetics company and asked herself what she should do, she had no answer. 

It turned out a connection from her last job made the difference, reaching out to her about plans to start the first digital-native cosmetic brand in Italy.

She said to herself: “Listen, I cannot go elsewhere. This is a door opening. I'm going to jump in.”

The solopreneur life was different than the progress she had imagined based on her parents’ examples. She was a “corporate girl” at heart. But she came to see that this job gave her the chance to do the work she had always wanted to do. Her definition of progress shifted to: “I can trace my own path with the support of people.”

Law #1: Progress doesn’t always look like moving up the organizational chart. Sometimes it can mean growing your stability, skills, or satisfaction.

Navigators recognize that only they can determine what success means for their next step.  

When you signed up for this newsletter, you may have received the Career River Mapping Guide. This walks you through considering progress on your terms over your career journey.

As you consider how to apply the first Navigation Law to your own experience, remember: you are the expert in what you want from your work. That may shift over time and when it does, remember that changing course is not a failure – it's freeing.

Happy navigating,
Bridget