Jobs and the Future of Work

If you want to wind up successful and happy, look at your boss and ask one question

A worker arrives at his office in the Canary Wharf business district in London, Britain February 26, 2014.      REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo                GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD PACKAGE Ð SEARCH ÒBUSINESS WEEK AHEAD 5 SEPTEMBERÓ FOR ALL IMAGES - S1AETZLIYFAB

Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow, says this is what you should consider when looking to someone as a role model. Image: REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Alyson Shontell
Editor in Chief, Business Insider U.S.
Shana Lebowitz
Strategy Reporter, Business Insider
Share:
Our Impact
What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Jobs and the Future of Work?
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Future of Work is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Future of Work

It's easy to look at somebody powerful and say to yourself, I want that life. I want to be COO of a tech company and make millions of dollars a year and spend it on a fancy car and a personal trainer.

It's not as easy to look at the full picture and realize said executive also works 80-hour weeks and never sees his or her family.

Which is why Spencer Rascoff, CEO of real-estate website and app Zillow, has always been careful about choosing career role models.

Before cofounding Zillow, which is now a $7 billion company, Rascoff cofounded the travel website Hotwire, which was bought by Expedia in 2003.

On an episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It," Rascoff told US editor-in-chief, Alyson Shontell, a trick that's made him so successful:

"I've always looked 10 years my senior and tried to find somebody at my company to think about if I want that person's life, their whole life."

Rascoff said this is basically the opposite of what most people do:

"Usually, younger people, earlier in their career people, look at a senior person and they look at their compensation, and I'm advising not to do that. So you're an associate in the marketing department, look at the VP of marketing and say, 'Do I want her or his work-life balance, respect in the community, intellectual stimulation of their job, title, sure, compensation, yes, but sort of the whole package?' That's the path you're on."

Rascoff's advice dovetails nicely with an insight from former ReWork CEO Nathaniel Koloc. Koloc told the Harvard Business Review that instead of asking yourself what job you want next, you should be asking yourself, "What life to do I want?" As in: Where do I want to be five, 10, or 20 years down the line? Any decisions you make about your immediate future should reflect those longer-term career goals.

In other words, taking a job just for the high salary might be a good decision in the short term. But it's worth thinking about how this job will help you build the overall life you aspire to in the long run.

Rascoff said, "You could wake up in the blink of an eye and end up in [your role model's] world. And if you don't like that trajectory, then find some other path."

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

How neurodiversity in the workplace can drive business success

Richard Jl Heron

October 8, 2024

About us

Engage with us

  • Sign in
  • Partner with us
  • Become a member
  • Sign up for our press releases
  • Subscribe to our newsletters
  • Contact us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2024 World Economic Forum