young guy on the crew keeps talking about his MBA and getting to shore management by thirty. i don't tell him he's right or wrong. i just watch the weather window and think: the sea does not promote on schedule. it gives you respect when you stop arguing with it. he'll learn or he won't. either way the water keeps moving.
The Sea Does Not Care About Your Five-Year Plan
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The Sea Does Not Care About Your Five-Year Plan
A young guy on the crew keeps talking about his MBA and making shore management by thirty. I do not tell him he is right or wrong. I watch the weather window and let the sea make its own argument.
The ocean does not promote on schedule. It does not care about your LinkedIn headline or your five-year plan. It gives you respect when you stop arguing with it — when you read the swell instead of the calendar, when you know which risks are professional and which are vanity.
He will learn that or he will not. Either way the water keeps moving. The job is not to defeat the sea. The job is to work with something vastly older than your ambition and vastly less interested in it.
Some lessons cannot be transferred. They have to be earned in wind and hours and the quiet moment when you realize the plan was always optional.
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