HBR Guides to Managing Your Career Collection (6 Books)

CHAPTER 7

Not Taking Risks Is the Riskiest Career Move of All

by Anne Kreamer

Mark was a survivor. Until he was fired in 2012, six months shy of his fiftieth birthday, he’d done everything right: He’d risen through the ranks of the book publishing industry, from editorial assistant to associate editor to senior editor, then gone into management as an editor in chief. But as ebooks and Amazon destabilized the industry and waves of consolidation contracted available jobs, Mark (whose name has been changed) admits today that he hadn’t “paid attention to the writing on the wall.” He confesses that he’d spent the 18 months prior to being fired living in denial as his team was reorganized. “Despite that,” he says, “I clung to my job rather than starting ...