Problem Solving – Where Do You Drop Your Professional Anchor?
Problem Solving – Where Do You Drop Your Anchor?
Dropping your professional anchor with the wrong person or company is as dangerous as dropping your boat’s anchor in the wrong place.
Why do we drop an anchor? In the case of a boat, an anchor holds the boat in place while you do what you want to accomplish. Your professional anchor holds you in place while you work on your career.
Salvage Master’s Rule
Drop your anchor where you have the best chance for success.
When I was a fishing guide, searching the deep offshore waters for trophy halibut out of Sitka, Alaska, it was important to find where the delicious barn doors lived, and then be able to drop my anchor, stay put while we fished, and retrieve it when I was done.
I had much electronic help to determine the best place to find trophy fish and drop my anchor. It included a chart plotter with an integrated global positioning satellite receiver that would tell me my position anywhere in the world within 25 feet. I also had an extremely accurate fathometer that would give me a running chart of the bottom topography. I could tell, by the signal returned to my fathometer, if the bottom was mud, sand, or rocks.
In fact, I had better navigation equipment on my little fishing boat than our astronauts had when they traveled to the moon. During the moon shots, engineers figured the exact time and place for the astronauts to exit the earth’s gravitational pull in order to send them on the correct trajectory to hit the moon. In short, the space capsule was like a rock in a kid’s slingshot.
That covers fishing and space travel, but what about you and your career? How do you navigate to the best place to drop your professional anchor? Today, with the internet and other on-line resources, you have access to an infinite amount of information about other people and their businesses. Check them out! My point is that you should not take just any job. Be certain the job is one that meets your needs, financially and professionally.
Salvage Master’s Rule
Drop your anchor where it will stick.
If the wind blows, will my anchor hold so I can stay on the fishing spot? Again, I needed to know the composition of the ocean floor and whether or not my anchor would hold in a storm.
It’s the same for your career. Look at the conditions before you drop your professional anchor. If the financial wind blows, or a storm comes up, will your professional anchor hold? How about the company’s anchor? Will it hold in a business storm?
Salvage Master’s Rule
Drop your anchor where you can retrieve it when you move on.
The last consideration about where to drop your anchor is if you will be able to retrieve your anchor when you are ready to move.
In order to catch trophy Halibut, I had to take risk. I had to anchor where they lived. The ideal habitat was a series of lava pits created centuries ago when the nearby volcano, Mount Edgecumbe blew its top. I made the decision to drop my anchor in risky grounds. Lava pits are very grabby when it comes to retrieving an anchor dropped in them. The risk was not so much the $250 it cost for a new anchor and rode; it was the four hours of sleep I lost when I had to rig a new one. My average day was already 16-18 hours long.
What is the risk for you when you are ready to pull your anchor and move? Will you take your reputation with you? Check on the internet to see what is said about people when they leave the company where you consider dropping your anchor. Is the company gracious and do they write nice things or do they trash everyone who leaves?
The problem is determining the amount of risk you are willing to take because the biggest rewards require the biggest risk.
Three questions to ask before you drop your professional anchor:
- Can you accomplish your goals by dropping your anchor here?
- Will your anchor hold until you are ready to leave?
- Can you retrieve your anchor, reputation and all, when you move on?
To sum this up – Go chase the trophy fish. That’s what life’s about. Just be careful where you drop your anchor!
Bob Walker
P.S. If you want an in-depth process to solve problems, CLICK HERE.
© 2011 Salvage Master Bob Walker
