From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Mohamed El-Erian on work life balance and career lessons

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Start my 1-month free trial

Mohamed El-Erian on work life balance and career lessons

“

- When you think about your career, you've had a very storied career. You left as the CEO of PIMCO, in a way that I'm sure was not the way that you, when you pictured in your mind, how it was going to end. I'm curious, as years later, do you still think back about that? How did that have an impact on your psyche, how you think about your work. - So what's very clear to me is that I was very privileged to work at PIMCO and I have many friends there. And I continue to have a great relationship with them. And what's very clear to me is that I benefited enormously from being surrounded by amazing minds that were willing to have discussions and push the envelope. When we came up with the concept of the new normal in 2009, it was called exotic by a lot of people. Six years later it became conventional wisdom. Right? And the reason why this concept emerged out of PIMCO is not just because people are very right, but because people are willing to challenge conventional wisdom. So I look back as a wonderful period, I spent 14 years there in total, where I was very privileged and lucky to work in such a stimulating place. And that's the most dominant memory I have of PIMCO. - What would you tell people who are in a situation where they are in hard charging lines of work and they want to figure out how to meet that life, balance, work. - I tell them, open your eyes. I needed my eyes opened by my daughter who gave me a list of 22 things I had missed that school year, of things. That was my wake up call. And she had documented every single one. And I found myself first trying to justify and I had a really good explanation for each. I had to go to Tokyo, to do this. I had to do this. And then I realized that these were quote, her words, her special moments. And I wish I had heard that earlier. I really wish I had heard it earlier. So my suggestion to people is just increase your awareness, increase your peripheral vision. Hard charging people tend to be very focused and peripheral vision is important. But my message is even a stronger one to companies. This is a reality and there's a lot that companies can and should do to improve work life balance. And they'll find that it actually increases efficiency. They'll find they'll be able to hire and mentor and develop even greater talent. And it's an absolute win-win. And I've realized that now much more than I had thought about it before. I like the image of don't think of your career as a ladder. Think of it as a jungle gym. Right? Explore. Go different places. My generation grew up from this notion that you start at the bottom and you climb the ladder. You should only climb one ladder and then when you get half way up or at the top of the ladder, that's success. That's not how to think about a career in this exciting life. Think of it as a jungle gym. Explore. Go lateral sometimes, go somewhere different. Yeah, you're going to fall off but it's a lot of fun being on a jungle gym. I look at people who have became very successful because they failed. So the first thing I say to them is don't get stuck in your mentality of the ladder. Think of it as a jungle gym. Second, is always learn and third, the most important lesson I learned. I learned it from my father and then it got reinforced quickly at my first University interview, is what you think and why, is as important as how you think. My economic teacher told me, read this book and it had just come out and whatever you do, bring it up in the interview because you'd really impressed the interviewer. So I went for my interview, I knew it was going to be 45 minutes. 40 minutes into the interview, I hadn't mentioned it. And I was starting to panic. We're talking about a completely different topic and I said, oh that reminds me of the book. And what I should have noticed is that the second person who was interviewing me who hadn't asked a single question, but was taking notes, put down his notes and smiled. And I should've realized that I was about to walk into something bad. And he said, tell us about the book. And I went into a perfect monologue that I had prepared, gaining confidence and I felt this is it, I've nailed it. And the guy said, that's really interesting. Have you thought of the following? And then he asked me a question that demolished the whole thesis of the book. And then to make things worse, he got up, it was his room, he went to his bookshelf, pulled out an off print of an article of a review he had done of the book that destroys the book and gave it to me. And said, Mohammed, just because it's written and published doesn't mean it's right. And that for me very huge. Just because you're comfortable going to a certain point of view, don't assume it's right. Open your mind to other points of view and then reach your own judgment.

Contents