From the oft-lamented explosion of reality TV to the social media platforms nearly all of us participate in, we are in the age of the over-share. The message today is that recognition equals value, attention equals success.
But how does this ethos of attention affect children and young adults, in particular the career paths they covet and pursue? What are young people’s sense of how to gain happiness? What is their sense of how to achieve success? For that matter, how do we even define success?
The college administrators, students and recruiters I’ve spoken with report that more and more young adults today are pursuing careers in the fields of entertainment or media, or are seeking roles within organizations that carry the highest profiles: e.g., the banker closing the big deals instead of the quantitative analyst who, working behind the scenes, prepared the data for those deals to happen.
But what many in the business world know, especially recruiters, is that there are, of course, a very limited number of these types of jobs. And, conversely, that under-the-radar positions, like computer coders or backroom accountants, and many other more obscure but critical, and often highly paid professions, are regularly in high demand.
This imbalance isn’t surprising when the attitude of so many young people is: Why would I want to work backstage when I can vie to be the front person?
But as parents we need to explain to our children why this mindset is generally a folly. First, most people who are motivated by gaining a higher profile end up failing to make any real headway and either flounder or ultimately and dejectedly veer in another direction. Second, and what is more instructive and inspirational, is the example of the “Invisibles,” a class of skilled professionals whose work is critical to whatever enterprise they are a part of, yet who go largely unnoticed by the public.
Here is where things get interesting. What Invisibles show — and these are people across a wide range of fields and industries, many of whom are in positions of power, and well remunerated — is that they achieved their perches by not seeking attention. One Invisible, a structural engineer for many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers, a position of great power and import (yet his name is unknown while the architects he collaborates with gain all the glory), invariably answered questions about himself with “we” instead of “I.” This team-oriented mindset was prevalent among many of the Invisibles I met, and yet they credit this collectivist attitude with ultimately hoisting them into accomplished positions. It turns out that the making the most noise isn’t the only, or even necessarily the best route to success.
And while gaining recognition for ourselves and our work is wonderful at times, Invisibles are some of the most satisfied people among us. A wealth of research in psychology shows that being motivated, as the Invisibles are, by intrinsic rewards – finding value in one’s work for its own sake, seeking challenges, seeing yourself as part of a larger enterprise – is the source of deep and lasting fulfillment. The impact of extrinsic rewards, such as money and attention, while important, is ephemeral and limited.
To counter the effects of our fame and attention-obsessed culture, we need to talk with our young people more about the hidden value of work that often goes unseen, both in personal fulfillment and in having a successful career.
There is nothing wrong with working in visible positions, of course. But if one’s motivation is attention itself, rather than recognition being a byproduct of doing excellent work, that goal will remain stubbornly out of reach for all but the very few. And even for those who attain it, the rewards of attention are all too fleeting.
The encouraging news is that after I talk with students and open their minds with inspiring examples of Invisibles in action, they realize that the power of being Invisible can be more luminous than the spotlight.