I’m often asked for career advice. People think linearly: I get my degree, work for two years, return and get my MBA, etc. I like to challenge people to think non-linearly if they want to be massively successful. Here are the four career tips I give people:

Problems, not Skills. The old saying, “When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” applies to skills. Too often, people are eager to learn new skills and look for problems to use those skills, regardless of the importance of that problem. People who solve big problems are invaluable to any company. If you’re an entry-level employee, start solving problems at your level or within your group; ask your manager about the biggest problems facing your team. If you’re a manager, solve problems within your group and across your company. If you’re the CEO, solve problems in your company and across your industry. If you’re the president of a country, you need to solve the biggest problems facing your country and the world. You learn the skills necessary to solve problems, not vice versa.
Optionality. I’m a massive believer in optionality. Many people leave school with “a plan.” Looking back at my career, I “knew” at 15 that I would get a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. I did well at the University of Michigan and had great internships. One of the internships was working on the first IBM PC. The day I was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Michigan, I started my first company developing PC software because I was sure the PC was a megatrend and needed to be a part of it. When Dwight Merriman and I were looking to start a company in 1995, we knew the Internet would be world-changing, so we created 100 different “options” before we started DoubleClick. My advice is to crush whatever you do, and you’ll encounter many opportunities at unexpected times from which to choose. Nobody can predict the future, so stay focused on doing well in the present and looking for that massive opportunity. Keep your options open and choose wisely.
Be Dependable. If you say you are going to do something, overdo it. Don’t just focus on what was requested; focus on the “why.” Solve the root cause of the problem, not just the symptoms. When the Bulls were down with only three seconds left, everyone knew it was going to Michael Jordan. I always gave the most critical problems to the “Michael Jordans” because I knew they had the best chances to win.
Own Your Career. We had about 2,500 employees at DoubleClick, so I told career advice seekers that, at most, I was 1/2500th as interested in their career as they were. You need to own your career because nobody else will. Look for the big or ugly problems others don’t want to touch and solve.