Lessons From Tommy Norris’ One-Day Job Search

The five step career plan is iterative.

The best practitioners of it iterate from the general
to the specific. If in nothing else he does, Tommy Norris provides a model for how to do
this right as he moved from 1) likes and dislikes, 2) ideal job criteria, 3) long term goals,
4) creating options, 5) making and implementing his choice all in one day.

Catalyst
The catalyst for Tommy’s job search was getting fired. He invested no time in worrying
about why that happened or fighting it. Instead, his one-day job search started with his
likes and dislikes.

1 Likes and dislikes
Tommy started his day by sitting down and reflecting on what mattered to him – what he
liked to do and what he disliked doing. That led to his ideal job criteria and long-term
goal.

2 Ideal job criteria
Tommy realized he liked being in the field and making things happen. He liked swinging
for the fences and going for home runs. He didn’t like sitting in an office and moving
things slowly.

He realized his assets included some oil field leases, his well-earned reputation in the
oil industry, a handful of loyal followers, and his own personal strengths, including his:

Tommy also realized he wanted to take one more big shot at creating something
meaningful, providing for the people he cared about along the way.

4 Create options
Tommy gave himself a day to turn his assets into options.
When the people that knew him learned he was “available,” some offered him jobs on
the spot – creating options.

At the same time, he moved to turn his son’s oil leases into a new business. That
required managing the contract, getting funding, and building a team.

5 Choice
By the end of the day, Tommy chose between launching a new business, accepting
someone else’s job offer, and calling it a day, comparing those options to each other
based on his ideal job criteria and long-term goal. He:

•Struck a deal with his second choice investor, having been rejected by his first
choice investor.
•Re-routed the contract for the oil field leases.
•Got his new team together live and in person all at the same time, laid out the
proposition, what was in it for them, naming his son President of the new
company, himself SVP, and others, Treasurer, Chief Operating Officer, General
Counsel, Head of Exploration, Head of Drilling, Drill Crew Head, Office Manager,
and the drill crew.
•And they had already started.

Tommy Norris and Taylor Sheridan

For those of you that don’t know, Tommy Norris is the fictional lead character in Taylor
Sheridan’s TV series, Landman. But the lessons are real.
Taylor Sheridan was not having success as an actor. He chose to create his own shows
instead.

One man I know was on the phone with a client when his boss called. He told the client
he’d call him right back and took the call from his boss who fired him over the phone.
When he called his client back and told him what happened, the client offered him a job
on the spot – which he took.

Another man who was looking for a job was at his daughter’s soccer game. He struck
up a conversation with the father of one his daughter’s teammates who turned out to be
the head of HR for a major corporation, and invited him in for exploratory interviews. In the
four days between that first conversation and when he came in for those interviews, the
corporation had a major meltdown with one of their biggest customers. When the man
walked in and told them his expertise was managing big customers, they hired him on
the spot.

Implications for you
You’re in charge of you. When it’s time to reinvent yourself, take a moment to think
through what you like and dislike, your ideal job criteria, and long-term goals, then go
create options by putting yourself in the way of jobs that already exist and creating
options that don’t exist, but should.

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