Law #2: Discovery Requires Uncertainty

Welcome back to the rollout of the Three Navigation Laws of the Career River – the strategies that I've found professionals use to face moments of uncertainty and the unexpected in their careers.

Last week we covered Law #1: Progress Is Dynamic, by learning how Italian cosmetics company "corporate girl" turned entrepreneur Alice Farella Monti rethought what progress meant for her. This week we move on to the second law: Discovery Requires Uncertainty.

‘Now I recognize the value’

It wasn’t easy to start out on her own, leaving her corporate job at a cosmetics company to be a solopreneur for a digital beauty brand. Farella Monti spent the first year worried about making another mistake like the one that had brought her to her last company, and she didn’t call herself an entrepreneur because she felt she hadn’t proven herself. 

But then the first products started to come, products she had made possible and shaped down to the silver packaging. She started enjoying herself, finding flow in her work.

Law #2: Expecting a rinse-and-repeat approach will guarantee a bright and shiny career does not work when the environment is continually shifting around you.

Navigators learn to experiment with different approaches, and find the learning value in setbacks, to discover new possibilities. 

After a couple of years, as the company’s mission shifted, she decided it was time to move on. And over the course of 48 interviews, it became clear that not everyone saw the worth of her story. One HR rep told Farella Monti that her career hadn’t had any value because it was not linear. “It punched me in the face,” she said. “I didn't even think about the value that I had created with my company. … I was still, ‘Ooh, maybe he's right, maybe I should have stayed in the first Italian company.” 

Now, she says frankly, she sees “it’s bullshit.” In Italy, digital-native beauty companies like hers have grown to 90 percent of the market. “Now I recognize the value.”

Embracing Uncertainty

Often we view uncertainty as a signal that something is wrong. We're so focused on what we don't know that we lose sight of what we could learn.

If you're facing a moment of challenge in your career, try viewing that uncertainty as a signal that you are moving toward a discovery.

Happy navigating,
Bridget