Best Career Advice Building a Highly Successful Career in Packaging

While the grass may be greener, that’s rarely the point. Brokering the win-win is what we do best but that just opens the door. Building a highly successful career in packaging requires taking risks.

Who knows what the future holds? There are no crystal balls. Even the best job offer and compensation package may fall short. None of that matters if you’re not the captain of your own ship.

“We must all learn not only to not fear change, but to embrace it enthusiastically and, perhaps even more important, encourage and drive it.” – Tony Hsieh / Founder & CEO Of Zappos, Author of “Delivering Happiness.”

Are you intellectually curious? How do you handle professional roadblocks? Are you doing your job or are you proactively building a career? Where there is no risk, there is no reward. Sure, we’ve all heard that saying, but few of us live it.

Take risks.

Talent, Tenacity, & Taking Risks

“… it boils down to the fact that as human beings, we are wired to resist giving up the known for the unknown.” – The Harvard Business Review article, Not Taking Risks Is the Riskiest Career Move of All.

When approached with a job offer, the tendency is to focus on the “package” versus the opportunity. It’s an important distinction. What to do if your best career move requires a weaker overall package? Temporary pain for long-term growth.  

“If you really want to get ahead, you have to sit in as many spots as possible and find your expertise,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether you start out as a recruiter or a generalist, you can learn from any position.”  Steve Cadigan, former VP Of Talent – LinkedIn.

The quote is found in Career Counselor Arlene Hirsch’s article, “How To Grow Your Career By Embracing Risk”, a helpful blog post on what you’ll need to take big risks. But risk taking does not operate in a vacuum.

Highly successful packaging executives have (3) things in common:

TALENT / Risk without talent is like a ship without a rudder. A deep and unyielding passion for performing fuels risk-taking. It’s the never-ending quest to be the best version of yourself. The result is a reputation. Your personal brand becomes that of a risk-taking rainmaker that gets results.

TENACITY / People that take risks fail more often than mere mortals. Some use failure as an influential teacher and others avoid it like the plague. Risk takers are failure friendly. They have the metal to play the long game. When the hurricane of change hits, they bring calm to the storm.

TAKING RISKS / Informed risk-taking is rooted in talent and sustained by tenacity — the three-act as one. Rainmaking risk takers see opportunity where mortals see risk. When they speak, people listen. And while such notoriety may seem impossible, the path begins with two words – take risks.

The Packaging Company Rainmaker

“Taking risks may seem scary, but risk is the moat standing between you and true success” – Sam McRoberts, Author &  CEO Of Vudu Marketing

Rainmakers are people that make stuff happen at a very high level. Your top sales associate, the Zen-like plant manager, your VP of Operations that is taking the world by storm; all are rainmakers. As noted earlier, rainmakers are known for their talent, tenacity, and their willingness to take risks.

In Sam McRoberts article titled, “Here’s What Science Says You Should Do to Achieve Greater Success”, he explores the relationship between taking risks and being a peak performer. It’s a brief but powerful blog post.

“Accordingly, you can make yourself more comfortable with taking risks simply by taking more risks — even if they’re small ones — in your daily life.” At the end of his guest post, he quotes Jack Canfield, “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”

The Hollywood version of being is risk-taker is all about bravado, the big heroic moment. In the real world, being a risk-taker is far more about pushing past your comfort zones, than it is about heroism.

Want to become a rainmaker? Take risks. Fail. Succeed. Grow.


What does this have to do with executive recruiting? EVERYTHING! How can we find the Rainmakers Of Packaging unless we know what they look like? Talent. Tenacity. The willingness to take risks. When you’re looking for a rainmaker, call Chase.  

Chase & Associates – We Have Your Back