Friends of Harry Potter

What does Harry Potter have to do with careers and why do you care? And yes I know I just wrote a blog about Harry Potter. However now that I have actually seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I can write with some knowledge about the subject. While not knowing anything about what I am talking about has never stopped me from expressing an opinion in the past, I try to limit sharing of those opinions with my closest friends who are likely to forgive me. So what does Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix have to do with careers. We could talk about branding, extending your franchise, doing what you love (J.K. Rowling was fired from her job as a secretary for writing stories at work using the company computer) or persistence as keys to career success. The Harry Potter franchise that J.K. Rowling has created is an excellent example of using each of these tools to further your business goals.

What I want to talk about, however, is not the making of the movie but the moral of the story. That is not in my view that bureaucracy is the enemy of good policy although I suppose that is one theme we can deduce from the movie.

I want to focus on the real career lesson you can take from the movie-- the value of friends and mentors. After all it is Harry's friends who stick with him when everyone else thinks he is crazy or a traitor. It is his friends and mentors who support him, keep him from being expelled and save his life. He repays them repeated by teaching them and helping them when they are in danger. Early on Harry is tempted to push his friends away when he is in trouble rather than seek their help. He has to be persuaded to offer his help to them as well, feeling that he does not have sufficient expertise to offer them.

As a bright young Harvard lawyer I thought I was going to conquer the world by being smarter and harder working than everyone else. What I learned is there is always someone else who is smarter or harder working. While those qualities are important they will only take you so far.

To be successful we need to offer help to others whenever we can throughout our career, particularly to those who at the moment may seem like they have little to offer in return. We need to mentor others whenever we can. We need to build our network and help our friends without thinking about what we might get in return. If you do that they will be there for you when you need them and they will help you in ways you would not even think to ask. Most people don't understand that networking is about what you can give not what you can get.

Career success, as well as success in life, is built on the quality of your relationships. When it comes to career success it is your friends, your network and your mentors who will make all the difference. Even Harry Potter can't do it alone.