What makes you special?

Best career guidance of all time probably

“If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”

What makes you special? It’s a big question. One we often avoid because the answer feels… elusive.

Dale Carnegie believed that it’s really hard to truly exhaust someone physically, and even harder to truly exhaust them mentally, if they’re doing something they actually care about.

He used the example of Special Forces Operators, who endure extreme physical and mental challenges just to qualify training.

So what if I told you that you could show the same level of diligence by finding something that you care about?

And this was tied to something entirely unique to you-to what made you special?

You’d probably think that’s unrealistic. And in part, it might be; after all, diligence during difficulty is much too broad to have a simple solution to.

But we can make it easier to be diligent.

When you care about what you’re doing, the work doesn’t magically feel lighter—it feels worth it.

A Special Force Operator might be diligent in doing a run with heavy equipment, but a scientist might be diligent by having 50 versions of a drug not work and seeing success on the 51st; a singer might be diligent by continuing her work after being dropped by label after label.

But Faizan, what if I am not a Special Force Operator, scientist or singer?

What can I find that is worth persevering for, that is special to me?

Well we can ask ourselves the following:

What feels like fun to me, but work to others?

This is a good sign that you’d be willing to persevere even after it gets to the threshold of becoming uninteresting.

What aligns with the kind of person I want to be?

What sort of legacy or impact would you want to leave on the world? Work backwards from there.

What makes me lose track of time?

Ever feel drained after a 40 minute lecture, but start a different project and not realise you’ve spent 15, 30 or 60 minutes doing it?

Where do I see more progress than the average person?

A lot easier to carry on with something if we truly believe that we can become the best at it.

What comes the most naturally to me?

Forget any desire to meet others’ expectations. No overthinking or self-criticism. Whenever you feel authentic and engaged, you are doing something right.

So, why is this important? After finding what makes me special, why would I not just do something that looks glamorous or makes the most money?

Well these two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

The Japanese call this Ikigai, the intersection between what you can be paid for, what the world needs, what you are good at and what you love.

You can become a ‘one of a kind’ in your industry by combining what makes you special and those external motivators like money. Irreplaceable.

The more you can master a specific skill, the more difficult it is to find someone else like you.

For example, a lot of the most successful CEOs in tech have an engineering background rather than a business one- their unique skillset means they understand innovation as much as profit.

As James Clear says, when you can't win by being better, you can win by being different.

But this isn’t just about work. It’s about life.

Pursuing goals solely for their external rewards—such as money or status—can lead to burnout. While external rewards can be motivating in the short term, they don’t sustain you when the challenges get tough.

Research supports this as well, as solely pursuing these external rewards can lead to increased stress and dissatisfaction.

Status comes with unforeseen responsibilities.
Money comes at the cost of health.
The grass is never as green as we imagine it.

Unlike external rewards however, we can have much more clarity about what really matters to us through this introspection.

Obviously a balance is important, but when you know what makes you special, you can stop trying to fit into boxes that weren’t made for you.

You will have a greater purpose and vision that can sustain you through the hard times.

The better you know yourself, the more choices you will make that reflect what actually matters to you.

That’s when you can start living a fulfilled life.