Sometimes you don't want to answer the phone, or go to the meeting, or reply to the email.
Not because you're lazy or anything, but because sometimes that one phone call can completely change your life or your career.
You're going along thinking everything is great, and then the next thing you know, you're on a Zoom meeting with your boss, being told you're being laid off.
The promotion you were expecting all along and felt on track is all of a sudden derailed by someone in the organization, and your manager has to call you and let you know the news.
The acquisition event you thought would happen is all of a sudden a no-go because you learned the CEO has been siphoning funds for the last year. There goes that paper equity you once had.
It sounds dramatic, I know. It sounds over the top and almost like disaster planning. But it's the reality that goes into your career.
One phone call. One email. One meeting.
Everything can change in an instant, and when you least expect it.
I've had countless people over the years tell me they wish they had made a different decision on their career just a week earlier, now knowing what ton of bricks they were hit with all of a sudden.
It happened to me to some extent. One week, I was in a meeting about how my organization was going to almost double in size from 400 to 750, and three weeks later, I got a phone call from my boss at 9am telling me the entire division was being shut down. I can still remember sitting there on a rainy October day just staring out my office window, trying to recover all of my thoughts. We had ridden a stock price to record highs, we had all been promoted to great levels, and it was in some way all just starting. Until it wasn't.
One phone call changed everything for me, and I've seen it happen to so many people.
They rarely give you a warning, too. For some reason, you don't get a chance to sense or smell something before you're scrambling to try and make backup plans all of a sudden.
So the question isn't "how do I avoid these situations" because I can promise you, you can't. They're somewhat inevitable in your career, and if one hasn't happened to you yet, it will.
The question you should be asking yourself is how do you diversify yourself enough and or market yourself enough to ensure that when this happens, you are able to navigate it, make a pivot if needed, and be marketable enough to jump to the next thing quickly and on your terms.
It's one part being well networked. It's one part being financially prepared. It's one part never trusting that you're comfortable.
Never turn down an opportunity to meet someone new. Never turn down an opportunity to learn something new. Never turn down an opportunity to gain exposure. The list goes on.
The people who navigate these moments best are not the smartest or the luckiest. They are the ones who were quietly building optionality long before they needed it. Relationships that had nothing to do with their current job. Skills they were developing after hours. A reputation that lived outside their title.
They did not panic because they were never fully dependent on one outcome, one person, or one company telling them who they were worth.
That is why I push this so hard. Not because I think everyone should be paranoid, but because comfort is expensive. The longer you sit still, the fewer choices you have when something breaks.
Careers do not usually end with a dramatic explosion. They end with a calendar invite, a polite tone, and a sentence you did not see coming. If your entire sense of security is tied to that moment going well, you are already exposed.
So take the call. Go to the meeting. Reply to the email. But do not do it empty-handed. Do it knowing you have leverage, relationships, savings, skills, and momentum that exist regardless of what someone else decides.
One phone call can change everything. Make sure it does not get to decide everything.