What I learned in consulting

Learning a) skills and b) mindset with a velocity I could not have anticipated.

1. A toolkit to take care of virtually any situation 

Consulting is like an army deployment. You find yourself inside companies leading Search, Enterprise Software, Wealth Management, Consumer goods, etc.. and master a toolkit that turns chaos into order within each environment.

Consulting teaches the skill of driving from ambiguity to structure. Most of the time, you're brought in to answer a question nobody knows the answer to. You begin to excel at first principles thinking, defining hypothesis steps forward to act, structuring next steps into yes or no questions, and bringing in data/expertise to iterate results. Whether the topic is growth strategy or mapping the nuclear supply chain in Ukraine, start acting today.

2. How to be a professional

The best professionals are polished. Consulting trains you to speak like a CEO to CEO's. Coaching includes speaking (top-down, no fillers, brevity, word choice, pausing), gesticulation, and dress. 

Consulting culture indoctrinates a mindset of "I cannot lose if I get feedback." The three feedback loops become: a) win -> win. Or b) lose -> feedback -> improve -> lose. Or c) lose -> feedback -> improve -> win. I share how I prefer receiving feedback and receive steering from senior colleagues, clients, my personal relationships (everyone—even my barber).

Professionals have discretion. Consulting creates human vaults. Consultants are taught to avoid saying the Firm’s name or client names, refrain from sharing details unless necessary, and ensure nobody overhears or over-sees things.

3. Efficiency skills

Long hours of apprenticeship and contact with institutional knowledge onboard consultants to best-in-class tactics. I became intimate with the feeling a cheetah must feel running maximum speed... just "doing what it’s born to do." 

The following was integrated into my personality:

- A personal ‘4 minute mile.’ You learn what you are truly capable of. Making a hundred page document or parsing a hundred page legal document for a tight deadline sets a new benchmark you can perform at if needed. If a consultant's personal standards were any higher they would scrape the moon. 

- Speaking the same language. A high performing team learns a common language set to reduce miscommunication and chunk ideas so one word can communicate an entire concept. Examples at my firm were: problem statement, ':)', headline, etc., which I can recreate or relearn for each organizational context. 

- Team norms. At the beginning of every project, we discuss the team's strengths, weaknesses, work style preferences, and needs for work-life balance. From this, we understand who we were working with and adapt to their work style. By anticipating how colleagues will respond to things and adjusting to their needs, the professional unit can move full speed ahead.

- Overcommunication. Articulate a plan before executing. If tactical steps are unclear, present proposed steps forward to give leverage to the more experienced members on the team. If roadblocks pop up, flag them and progress in an unblocked portion of the workstream.

- Multitasking. Working on tight deadlines develops the skill of aligning a list of priorities, each with different steps and timelines, not missing anything, and moving things around in real time. Lead meetings, take notes, highlight priorities.

- Computer skills. Consultants learn to glide from tab to tab without lifting a finger, use excel shortcuts to format with 4 buttons, zoom around with a 150% speed mouse, and more to 4x computer efficiency.

4. Things in life are amazing when constrained

 

My 'skill' at enjoying life skyrocketed. Just looking out the window can make my day. A nature jog can recharge my battery to the maximum. 

I found many things became more enjoyable when I savored their quantity. Under a busy schedule I would listen to music only once or twice a week, and I was surprised how each beat became a euphoric concerto. The first few minutes of music after not listening for a week were amazing, and this marginal utility concept applies to many areas of my life.

5. What it's like. The world is much easier once you know what it’s like

Through a battery of intense experiences, a sharp mind clarifies what it wants and understands the cost of achieving those wants. 

Consulting is concentrated work and concentrated luxury. I stayed at the nicest hotel in the city where the concierge delivered a band aid to my door. I had a Michelin dinner Uber Eats’d to me. I had fresh squeezed lobo apple juice for breakfast. Of these experiences, for me only one is worth working harder for - 🍎. My mind can now calibrate across a large number of experiences exactly what I'm missing, or that I'm missing nothing. 

Consulting makes the costs of a high powered job clear. If success requires responding to a message from the shower to get 15 more minutes of sleep... I've decided whether that's worth it or not. A brain that knows what "payment for success" feels like will make the right decision based on a) future goals and b) costs.

Once the mind knows what something is, it ceases making a special meaning out of that thing. Having been from Austin to Vienna is no better than not having been, but there is a part of me vulnerable to thinking it was.

The "what if" brain region rests after travelling to each experience - be it a city, an expensive hotel, or a private equity deal room. Experiencing saves me from my own imagination. Never wondering 'what if' is the greatest gift of all.