LEADERSHIP

Here is How to Think

The choice before entry

A candidate at the threshold faces a choice that most people avoid. You can look for any role that will have you. Or you can decide what role you actually want, and commit to getting that specific one.

The difference is not small. Broadening your search feels safer. It increases the number of doors that might open. But it dilutes your focus, your preparation, your pitch. You become a generalist applying for everything, and you compete against specialists applying for the one thing they want.

The highest possible standard is clarity. Not vague aspiration. Not "I am open to anything." But a specific answer to a specific question: what is the role you want, why does it matter to you, and what are you willing to trade to get it?

Most candidates never ask that question seriously. They start applying before they have decided. They send the CV to dozens of postings without knowing which one they actually want. They prepare for interviews in general rather than for a specific role they have chosen. And then they wonder why the responses are slow, why the conversations feel generic, why the offers when they come are for roles that do not quite fit. The answer is in the beginning, not in the process. The lack of clarity at the start shaped everything that followed.

The candidate who decides first does not need to apply to dozens of postings. The candidate who has decided applies to the few that match the decision, prepares specifically for those, and presents themselves as the specific person for that specific role. The work becomes smaller and the result becomes better at the same time. That is what clarity does.

Key Takeaway: The choice before you is not which job to apply for. It is whether to decide what you actually want before you start applying. Most candidates skip this choice. The ones who make it consciously stand apart from everyone who did not.

Clarity at the start shapes everything that follows. Without it, you compete for any job. With it, you compete for the right one.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · Section: The choice before entry

MarvinPro | June 2026

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The fast route

The fast route is simple. You take the first job that will have you. Any role, any company, any direction. You get income. You get employment history. You get yourself inside an organization. From there, you tell yourself, you can grow into the role you actually want.

The logic is sound in theory. You are in. You have time. You can move up. You can move sideways. You can move toward your goal from the inside.

The risk is also sound. Most people who take this route stay there. They do not grow up two levels to reach their goal. They stay in the role they took, or they move sideways into another equally wrong role. The organisation puts you or leaves you where it suits them best, and you become comfortable there, and five years pass, and you are still not where you wanted to be.

There is also a second risk. The direction you took teaches you things that do not transfer to the direction you wanted. The skills do not carry. The network is in the wrong industry. The mindset becomes habituated to a different pace or standard. Getting from wrong role to right role is possible but it is swimming upstream, not downstream.

Some candidates take this route and it works. They are disciplined enough to say no to the comfort and to push. They are strategic enough to learn what transfers and what does not. They do reach their goal, eventually, from inside.

But most do not. Most take the fast route and it becomes the permanent route.

Key Takeaway: The fast route trades clarity for speed. You get employed quickly. You lose focus. Most people who take this route do not reach their intended goal. They settle.

The cost of speed is clarity. And clarity is worth more than speed.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · Section: The fast route

MarvinPro | June 2026

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The sideways route

The sideways route is different. You are at a good level. You have capability. You have demonstrated success. But it is in the wrong direction. So you look for a role at the same level, in a different domain or industry or function, that is closer to where you want to be.

This feels safer than the fast route. You are not moving down. You are moving sideways at your level. You are not sacrificing competence. You are preserving it and redirecting it.

The risk is subtle. You move sideways, but you do not move forward. You spend time at the same level in a new domain, building credibility there, building a network there. And then when you want to move again, toward your actual goal, you have to move forward and sideways again, and you are starting new networks again, new credibility again. You have moved twice to get to one place.

There is also a risk of drift. You move sideways into a domain that is adjacent to your goal. It feels close enough. And then you become good at it. You become known for it. You build identity in it. And the sideways move that was supposed to be temporary becomes permanent. You stay there.

The sideways route works when you have a clear plan for the second move, and when you are disciplined enough to make it. But discipline is not common.

Key Takeaway: The sideways route trades time for lateral movement. You stay at your level. You change direction. You do not move forward. The risk is that you make the sideways move and then do not have the energy or clarity to make the forward move that was supposed to follow.

Sideways movement without forward momentum is drift.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · Section: The sideways route

MarvinPro | June 2026

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The narrow route

The narrow route is what conscious decision looks like. You decide what you actually want. Not what you can get. What you want. And you commit to that choice completely.

From that commitment, everything else follows. You prepare specifically for that role. You learn what that role needs. You build the portfolio that shows you understand it. You network into the companies that have it. You create the CV that positions you for it. You practice the conversation that sells it.

The narrowing feels risky because it is. You are not applying for everything. You are applying for one thing. If that thing does not come, you have fewer backup options. You have fewer doors that might open.

But the narrowing is also what makes you powerful. Because you are focused, your preparation is deep. Because you are deep, your presentation is compelling. Because you are compelling, you stand out. The employers you are approaching are not seeing a generalist. They are seeing someone who understands their role specifically and wants it specifically.

The narrow route works when you have clarity on what you want and discipline to execute on that clarity. It also works when you have a fallback decision. If the specific role does not come, you will start for yourself or pursue a different goal. That fallback removes the desperation. You are not clinging to this one role. You have a plan if it does not work. And that calm confidence is what makes you attractive when it does.

Key Takeaway: The narrow route trades breadth for depth. You focus on one thing. You master the preparation. You stand out. The risk is that you do not get it. The payoff is that when you do, you are fully ready, fully prepared, fully capable.

Focus is more powerful than breadth. Depth is more powerful than optionality.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · Section: The narrow route

MarvinPro | June 2026

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The decision framework

So which route do you take. Fast, sideways, or narrow.

The answer depends on three things. Your clarity, your capability, and your runway.

Clarity. Do you actually know what role you want. Not vaguely. Specifically. Can you describe it in detail. Can you explain why it matters to you. If you cannot answer that question with specificity, the narrow route will not work. You need clarity first. If you have it, the narrow route is possible. If you do not, you need to get it before you decide. That might mean taking a sideways role first, to learn what you actually want. That is not failure. That is learning.

Capability. Do you have the capability to do the role you want, or do you need to build it. If you have it, you are ready to move. If you need to build it, the fast route might be necessary. You take a role that lets you build the capability you need. You use the job to learn what the narrow route will later require. That is a valid path. But know that is what you are doing. You are not taking the fast route hoping to grow. You are taking it deliberately to build specific capability.

Runway. How much runway do you have. How long can you look, prepare, wait for the right role. If you have six months of runway, the narrow route is possible. If you have two weeks, you need the fast route. Runway is real. Do not starve yourself waiting for clarity. But also do not confuse urgency with direction. Urgency will pass. Direction will carry you for years.

The highest possible standard is this. Make a conscious decision about which route you are taking, and why. Do not drift into the fast route because it is easy. Do not drift into the sideways route because it feels safe. Decide which route fits your clarity, your capability, and your runway. And then commit to that route fully.

Key Takeaway: The route you choose depends on where you are. But the choice itself is what matters. Choose consciously. Choose knowing the trade-offs. Choose understanding what you are becoming as you make that choice. And then commit to that route completely.

The worst choice is the unchosen path. The best choice is the one you make deliberately and execute on fully.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · Section: The decision framework

MarvinPro | June 2026

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A real example

A leader had been in the same position for years. Each time a more senior role opened in the organization, someone else was chosen. When he raised it with the people in charge, the answer was consistent. Look within yourself. Develop further. Work on what is missing. The implication was that the lack was personal, that he had not yet earned the next step.

He believed it for a while. Most people would. The feedback came from people who were supposed to know what they were looking for. If they said he was not ready, then perhaps he was not ready. So he kept working. He took on more responsibility. He delivered on what was asked. He waited for the assessment to change.

The years kept passing. The assessment never changed.

The decision in front of him was not simple. Staying meant keeping more than ten years of seniority, the recognition that comes with tenure, the network built over a decade, the deep knowledge of how the organization actually worked. Moving meant trading all of it. Starting over in a different domain. Zero years of seniority. Learning everything from scratch. The compensation for that trade was a new challenge: building a department that did not yet exist, with no playbook to follow and no one above him who had done it before.

It was not a step up in the safe sense. It was a step out of safety entirely. The seniority he had spent ten years accumulating would not transfer. The credibility he had built would have to be earned again from scratch. The team that knew him would no longer be his team. Everything he had been told was the reason he was not yet ready for promotion was about to become irrelevant, and so was everything he had built that should have made him ready.

He made the decision. He accepted the new role and walked away from the seniority.

Within his probation period at the new company, he was promoted to the exact level he had been waiting years to reach at the old one. The same level the people in charge had told him he was not yet ready for. Reached in months at a company that did not know him as the person who was always almost ready.

The lack had never been in him. The lack had been in the position he was in, where the perception of him had become fixed and was no longer being re-evaluated against his actual capability. The new company assessed him on what he could do now. And they moved him forward.

This is what deciding looks like at this threshold. Not knowing in advance whether the move will work out. Not having proof that you are right and the people who told you to look within yourself were wrong. Trading the certainty of what you have built for the uncertainty of what you might build next. Acting on your own assessment of what you are capable of rather than continuing to wait for someone else's assessment to change.

Staying is also a decision. The cost of staying when you should have moved is paid in years and in seniority that did not lead anywhere. The cost of moving is paid in years of seniority traded away, but those years bought something the staying never would have: the chance to find out what he was actually capable of.

The lack was never in him. The decision to move was what revealed it.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · A real example

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Decide

The choice you make at the beginning determines everything that follows. Not which specific job you get, but how you approach getting it. Not what role opens, but who you are becoming as you reach for it.

The highest possible standard is clarity. Not about the outcome. About the choice itself. Know which route you are on. Know why you chose it. Know what it costs. Know what it gives you. And then commit to that route fully.

Build first if you must. Move sideways if that is the honest path. Narrow if you have the clarity to do it. All three routes can work. But the route only works if it was chosen, not drifted into. The candidate who decides consciously and commits fully outperforms the candidate who applies broadly and hopes something fits.

The role you want exists. The company you want to work for exists. The team you want to join exists. But before you reach for any of it, you have to decide. Not next month. Not when things calm down. Now. At the threshold. When the choice is in front of you.

Your route is not just about getting a job. It is about who you are deciding to become.

The candidate who decides has already started. The candidate who has not decided is still waiting, even while applying.

Decide first. Everything else follows from that.

MarvinPro · LEADERSHIP · Here is How to Think · Vol 0: The Candidate · Philosophy 1: Decide · Chapter Outcome

MarvinPro | June 2026

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Think Simple.