Walter White: 7 Things You Can Learn from Him for Your Career

Walter White is a fictional character from the American series Breaking Bad - the best series I have ever seen: it is brilliantly acted and written. At the beginning of the series, Walter embodies all the clichés of a boring middle-class life. As a father, husband, and chemistry teacher, he has a mountain of debts that he is trying to pay off decently. The mediocre life takes a turn for the worse: Walter is diagnosed with lung cancer. The doctors predict he only has a few months to live. He accepts his fate, but he wants to leave something behind for his family. By chance, he sees crystal meth from a drug lab and is appalled by the amateurish production. He decides to start making it himself. And behold: In no time, his crystal meth becomes famous for its quality, and his rise to drug lord seems unstoppable... I have compiled 7 things for you that you can learn from Walter for your career. If you use them not to produce drugs, but to do good work, you will help the whole world.

1. Be Irreplaceable

Walter quickly makes himself irreplaceable in the drug scene. As an excellent chemist, he is miles ahead of other drug producers, and he produces the highest quality crystal meth on the market. Consequently, his customers are willing to pay a lot - more than for others. As a successful entrepreneur but also as an employee, it is extremely important to make yourself irreplaceable. Who has more power in a salary negotiation: As in the example of White, the one who cooks good crystal meth can demand more. In other words, someone who has unique know-how or good connections is an irreplaceable piece of the puzzle for the company, right?

2. Make a Name for Yourself

Walter White makes a name for himself under the pseudonym "Heisenberg," a German physicist and Nobel laureate. The unusual visual combination of glasses, beard, and hat becomes his trademark. The blue color of the crystal meth he produces is rather coincidental but becomes the trademark of the drug he produces. This does not mean you should now go to work wearing a hat, but you should definitely think about how you present yourself and what image you want to portray. What do you have that others don't? What could appeal to the customer and what not? If you are unique and exceptional, everyone will remember you immediately.

3. Focus on Your Strengths Instead of Your Weaknesses

Walter White is a chemist, and as such, he focuses entirely on the production of crystal meth. He is aware that more is needed to become a drug lord. From the beginning, he delegates things that others can do better than him. He leaves the distribution to others from the start: Jesse, Tuco, and Gustavo. Administrative tasks are left to Saul Goodman, his sleazy but likable lawyer. This way, he can focus entirely on what he does best: producing crystal meth. Why strengthen weaknesses when strengthening strengths is much more sensible. Since school, we spend hours trying to somehow turn our weaknesses into strengths, but this often fails. When we really focus on our strengths, we can become world-class in something. Like in the example of Walter White, who focused only on the production of his product from the beginning. And lastly, it is much more fun to work on your strengths than on your weaknesses.

4. Find Solutions and Be Creative

—Spoiler Alert— It is the beginning of the 5th season. Walter White has eliminated his enemies and his family seems to be safe. However, the Albuquerque police have seized damning evidence on a laptop against Walter and securely keep it in the evidence room. A hopeless situation? Walter and Jesse come up with the absurd idea of using a truck with a huge magnet, which they position outside the wall of the evidence room. And behold: Despite some difficulties, the magnet eventually dissolves the contents of the hard drives into thin air. "The life of the mind is problem-solving," wrote the great philosopher Karl Popper. It doesn't matter what phase of our lives we are in: Anyone who no longer has any problems in their life is dead. The only thing that changes over the course of life is the quality and type of problems. You can either spend your entire life being annoyed by all the different problems, or you can view every problem as a challenge that needs to be creatively solved. There is a solution for almost every problem, even if it often does not seem obvious.

5. Where Do You Draw Your Motivation From

Walter White is terminally ill and wants to leave his wife and son debt-free after his death. This enormous motivation drives him to take this radical path, where he must confront his fears. Without strong motivation, most people give up at the slightest resistance. Nearly everything we do in life is to avoid pain and gain pleasure - but that doesn't work to achieve big goals. Let's say you want to become wealthy. Then the question arises: Why exactly? Do you want to provide a high standard of living for your family or buy an Aston Martin for yourself? Answer this question beforehand. Then you will endure pain because you know that the pain of not achieving the goal would be greater.

6. Think Big

Walter White may have started small but always thought big. However, he thought big from the beginning - in stark contrast to his partner Jesse, who only wanted to sell a few grams of the crystal meth produced by Walter. Eventually, Walter produces crystal meth in tons and makes a fortune. "Jesse, you asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither. I'm in the empire business." The most important thing is to set long-term goals. However, these goals should not be set too high but broken down into small sub-goals. This makes it seem easier to achieve and automatically more attractive.

7. Don't Let Your Fears Hold You Back

Let's get to what I believe is the most important point in Breaking Bad. At the beginning of the series, Walter White is a frightened high school teacher who has always sought security in his life. He could have started a business with a friend at a younger age - but he backed out at the time. His friend, however, took the path and became very successful, which made Walter White envious. When he was diagnosed with cancer, it almost seemed as if a burden had been lifted from him. He faces his fears and becomes a different person. Of course, the need for security is right and important. However, we carry an inheritance from ancient times with us, a veritable aversion to uncertainties. But to further develop oneself professionally and personally, one must take new paths that lead out of one's comfort zone. Do not let your fear dominate you; what may seem like a big challenge to you the first time will be much easier the second time. Breaking Bad is not only an exciting and entertaining series; it also conveys a lot of valuable lessons. In this article, I have summarized what I believe are the most important core messages and hope that they serve as food for thought. For more information on Breaking Bad and Prof. Dr. Jack Nasher, please visit:https://www.speakers-excellence.de/redner/jack-nasher-msc-oxf.html Original article/source: http://jacknasher.com/walter-white-7-dinge-die-du-von-ihm-fuer-deine-karriere-lernen-kannst/