Betting on You Book Summary - Betting on You Book explained in key points

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Betting on You summary

Name: Betting on You
Rating: 4.2 (231 reviews)
Author: Laurie Ruettimann

Laurie Ruettimann

How to Put Yourself First and (Finally) Take Control of Your Career

4.2 (231 ratings)

23 mins

Table of Contents

Betting on You
summarized in 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Become your own best advocate and create a life you love.

Most of us enter the workplace starry-eyed and then quickly become disillusioned. That's because many modern workplaces are broken. They work their employees into burnout, have negligent HR departments, and pay too little.

It’s all very bleak, but there’s good news. No matter where you work, you have the power to change your life for the better. That might mean leaving a toxic workplace and finding a new job or adjusting your approach to your current job and making more space in life for the things that matter, like friends, fun, and travel.

Are you, like over half of Americans, bored or unmotivated at work? Do you drag yourself through the week, counting down the time until you can retire? Then these blinks are just the thing for you.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why medical tourism in Tijuana changed Laurie Ruettimann’s life;
how to stop valuing yourself by your work; and
why it’s never a good idea to quit in a rage.

Nobody can save you but you.

The author, Laurie Ruettimann, hated her job at Pfizer so much that she could barely bring herself to get out of bed in the mornings. She’d set alarm clocks all over the house because she just couldn’t get up.

Pfizer had offered her a job in its HR department which it promised would be full of learning opportunities and prestige. But when she started, she realized that her main task was to fly around the country firing employees who were victims of “restructuring.” And the department she worked in was dysfunctional and toxic.

She was miserable, and it affected every area of her life. Her health suffered because she overate and had no time to exercise. Her relationship with her husband was strained because she’d become bitter and cynical. She grew deeply depressed. But she couldn’t see a way out – that is, until she got some inspiration from an unlikely source.

Laurie was leafing through a magazine in an airport on one of her trips when she came across a story about Courtney Love going to Tijuana for weight-loss surgery. For some reason, this article filled her with an excitement she hadn’t felt for a very long time. If Courtney Love could take charge of her life, then why couldn’t she?

So, she decided to plan her own crazy jaunt to Mexico for the same surgery. It changed her life. Not because it caused her to lose weight – although she did. It changed her life because it marked the moment that she took charge and started putting her own well-being first. She started exercising, finally went to a therapist, and began writing more – something she’d always loved doing.

The blog she created about the secret world of HR took off, and within six months, she’d left Pfizer to become a full-time writer and consultant. Today, she advises people all over the world about how to become their own best HR consultants – and fix work by focusing on themselves first.

Stop identifying yourself by the work you do and become a professional slacker.

How do you introduce yourself to new people when you’re at a party? If you’re like most people, you’ll probably say your name and then tell them where you work. That’s called a career identity statement. While it might be useful for people to know what your job is, these kinds of introductions are also very limiting.

The truth is, we’re so much more than our work. We’re friends and lovers and parents. We love obscure sci-fi books and exotic ice creams. We volunteer at animal shelters and harbor dreams of doing the tango. In short – we’re nuanced. And our lives have a value and purpose that has nothing to do with what we do for a living.

Beat failure by doing a premortem before you begin a new project.

In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched in the US. Excited people gathered around their TV sets to watch this historic moment. But shortly after takeoff, the rocket exploded. Seven astronauts died that day.

It was a tragedy that could have been avoided. An investigation revealed that one of the engineers working on the launch had warned his superiors about serious problems with the rocket. But nobody took any notice. NASA was so invested in getting the rocket to launch on time, that management brushed his concerns aside.

Channel your inner CEO and ask to be paid what you’re worth.

We all know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, marveling at how our bank accounts empty so fast after paying the mortgage, insurance, and all the other monthly costs. It’s no accident that so many of us are short on cash, in spite of working so hard. Corporations have a pay structure that rewards the very top of the organization with lavish payouts while paying most workers as little as possible.

In fact, since the 1970s, pay for top executives has risen by 940 percent! And this happened while the salaries of the lowest-paid workers have stagnated or even decreased. We can get furious about these fat-cat executives, but we can also learn a thing or two from them.

When you’re stuck in a rut, learn something new.

Imagine having a job with so little to do that you can wander around museums all day. That’s what happened to the author when she had a cushy gig in Chicago. There was so little actual work to do that she showed up after 10:00 a.m., and then left for long lunches and walks around the city.

That might sound like your dream job, but in reality, it wasn’t much fun. Everyone likes to feel a sense of purpose and connection. And with nothing to do, she started to feel bored and aimless. She was also lonely – there was no one to talk to. And she felt guilty that she was wasting so much time.

Be a smart job seeker.

If you didn’t inherit a goldmine, then chances are you’ve had to look for a job at some stage in your life. Most of us have engaged in multiple job hunts, looking for a better cultural fit, or more money, or just to escape an office bully.

Job hunting is never easy, and it can take its toll on even the most resilient of us. Multiple rejections and uncertainty activate all your insecurities and can make you miserable. Unfortunately, your prospective employers will definitely pick up on that sense of desperation. So, the first thing to do in any job hunt is to prioritize your well-being and work on a positive mindset.

Never quit in a rage.

You’ve heard of the proverbial last straw to break the camel’s back. Something seemingly small can happen at work and suddenly you know that it’s time to leave. For one of the author’s clients, that moment came when his company took away his office and made him work from a noisy cubicle in an open setting instead.

For you, it could be that you’re fed up with being passed over again for promotion. Or simply that your commute is too long. Whatever your reason, sometimes the best thing to do is quit. But, like anything you do in your career, you need to do it strategically.

Become the HR department you want to see in the world.

The day the author saw one of her bosses having sex with his secretary is the day she became cynical about the world of HR. Her boss had forgotten to draw the curtains and so, the whole company got to see him and his secretary entangled in a passionate embrace.

She asked her manager what the HR department would do about the situation. But her manager just shrugged and said the department wouldn’t be getting involved because it was “above their pay grade.” So HR did nothing. And not long afterward, the secretary lost her job in a convenient restructuring. Doing nothing meant that the HR department had failed to protect a vulnerable employee from bearing the consequences of the affair.

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What is Betting on You about?

Betting on You (2021) is a hands-on guide to navigating the modern workplace. If you’re an employee in a big corporation, it can feel like you have no agency over your work life. But by putting yourself first and changing your mindset about work, you can make big changes right where you are. And if you need to leave your job, you can plan strategically for the next chapter.

Who should read Betting on You?

People looking for more autonomy and purpose in their careers
HR departments wanting to up their game
Burnt-out entrepreneurs looking to change their work habits

About the Author

Laurie Ruettimann left a career in corporate HR to become a writer, entrepreneur, and speaker. CNN has recognized her as being one of the top five career advisors in the United States. Her work has been featured on NPR, and in the New Yorker, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal.

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