Someone asked me recently: “What’s one action you’ve taken that scared you, but you did it anyway?”
My answer? Literally every job I’ve ever taken.
Here’s the thing – whether it was at Sony Music, Royal Caribbean, Ernst & Young, IBM, Amazon, or my current role, I’ve always been hired for the same reason:
To create something that doesn’t exist yet.
But here’s what makes it terrifying: They never tell me exactly what that “something” is.
Picture this. You walk into a new job, and your boss sits you down and says:
“We need you to... do more. We have this feeling that we should be doing something different. Something better. We just can’t quite put our finger on what it is.”
And then they look at you expectantly.
No clear roadmap. No “here’s your team, here’s your budget, here’s your deadline.”
Just a feeling, a hunch, and a sentiment that something needs to change.
So there I am, every single time, having to take that fuzzy feeling and turn it into something real.
I have to figure out what they actually need, who should do it, how much it should cost, and what success even looks like.
The patterns were the same across all the new industries I joined while meeting new people, understanding a new company culture, and speaking a new corporate language.
What I’ve Learned
After doing this dance across multiple industries and companies, here’s what I know:
The organizations that hire people to “create more” aren’t looking for managers. They need someone willing to build something from nothing.
They’re not asking you to follow a blueprint, they’re asking you to become the architect.
And yes, it’s absolutely terrifying every single time.
But it’s also the most rewarding work you can do, because you get to see something real emerge from what started as just a feeling that things could be better.
Your Turn
Have you ever been in a situation where someone handed you a vague vision and asked you to make it real?
How did you handle translating feelings into action?
I’d love to hear about your experiences building something from nothing.
Sol