Deliver.: The Untaught Lessons to Growth Hack Your Career

By Wen-Szu Lin

Deliver. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it means "to produce the promised, desired, or expected result." In business, there is no better honor than to be relied upon to consistently deliver. The ability to deliver matters for all levels, from a new graduate to a seasoned executive. The core competencies required to deliver build on top of each other, rooted in the foundational skills to be a great individual contributor. Surprisingly, most skills are not directly taught in formal education or at the workplace.

 

This book introduces and teaches proven, easy-to-follow techniques for a person to deliver as an individual contributor, a collaborator, and a leader. Techniques that I picked up over a 20+ year career filled with epic failures and heart-pumping successes. After losing millions of dollars in my own venture in China, I was forced to reset my career with no tangible assets (e.g., I was near broke), with no job leads (e.g., I moved to a new country to be with my family), and with no proven corporate record (e.g., I only had entry level roles to that point).

 

Yet, what I did have were untaught lessons on how to deliver. Lessons that were never articulated to me in school or the self-help books that I read so much of. When an entry level opportunity at Uber came along, these simple techniques allowed me to "growth hack" my career at a mind boggling pace. I went from sitting in a tiny rented office to managing thousands of people in less than a few years.

 

Deliver. is a structured set of learnings told through engaging stories from my experiences and from the voices of others. The lessons follow the concept of inside-out. The focus is on how to develop the self into a great individual contributor at work, through lessons on how to think in a structured manner, how to communicate, and how to manage one's emotions. The lessons then expand outwards to teach a person how to build and manage relationships, both as a stakeholder and as a manager. It ends with insights on how to become a great leader.

 

Using relatable topics such as Marie Kondo's methods of tidying-up to business lessons from an entrepreneur selling contact lenses for chickens to leadership lessons from the Navy SEALS, Deliver. draws examples from various disciplines to weave together a practical, memorable lesson plan. While the theory is important, the aim is to offer practical techniques to learn the underlying business and leadership principles. There is even a new term I coined for a technique that has been used for years at Uber.

 

My dream for this book is to impart actionable advice for millions that can help growth hack a person's career, regardless if they are new to the corporate world or if they are well seasoned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wen-Szu Lin
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201327781

Book preview

Deliver.

The untaught lessons to

GROWTH HACK your career

Praise for Deliver.

from leaders

A useful and enjoyable manual to understand how to become a better contributor and leader. Wen-Szu shares his rich life experience, academic knowledge, and world exposure with talent . . . never boring, always interesting.

–Daniel Julien

Founder, Chairman & CEO, Teleperformance

———

Wen-Szu has written an essential, must-read primer for those who are looking to get ahead in their career faster. Whether you are just starting your professional life or taking the big step into the C-Suite, read this book and learn from one of the best!

–Bryce Maddock

Co-founder & CEO, TaskUs

———

Every path to leadership is different, but Wen-Szu’s unusual journey is filled with universal learnings and tips that he was able to capture in a smart, witty narrative that should leave readers both entertained and equipped with a practical framework to shape their own path.

–Anthony Oundjian

Managing Director & Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group (BCG)

———

This is the book that I wish I had when I first began my management journey. It’s packed full of practical insights and actionable methods for delivering results and better outcomes. It’s an incredibly useful book for people looking to improve their own productivity and for leaders seeking to make their teams more effective.

–Jacob Hsu

CEO, Catelyte

Former CEO, Symbio

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on this book and the first reaction that I had was I wish I knew this when I started out my career! Wen-Szu is a master observer and he’s used his start-up and corporate experiences to succinctly share what tools you need to succeed in the business world when you start out. A real-world guidebook that you could put to use from day one!

–Amit Dubey

General Manager and Chairperson of the Board, Airbnb Capability Centers

Former Center of Excellence Lead, Uber

Former Global Director, American Express

———

This book is a how-to guide for a young professional on becoming effective at work and thoughtfully managing one’s career. It draws from Wen-Szu’s extensive experience in multiple work environments across three continents and in varied professional settings, from start-ups to technology and management consulting organizations. The book effectively combines theoretical frameworks and practical applications while also integrating relevant and often witty examples from Wen-Szu’s personal experience.

–Vik Krishnan

Partner, Mckinsey & Company

Former Partner & Global Aviation Practice Lead, Oliver Wyman

———

Such a well-constructed and synthesized piece of career development insights that read far from guidance and advice, but rather, from humbled experiences laden with transparency and vulnerability. The value in Wen-Szu’s writing is as worthwhile for my own retrospection and lifelong learning required for leading large teams as it is for my high school son, plotting his chess moves for his own future course.

–Dave Rizzo

President of Asia Pacific, Teleperformance

From people who have benefited

from the untaught lessons in Deliver.

Deliver. is a great learning and development program for anyone at any stage of their career. It offers real-life and practical lessons around productivity, discovering purpose and working as a team. Definitely a must-have to help build skills crucial to navigating your career. One I wish my 25-year-old self had handy when I was just starting.

–Mitch Depamaylo

Senior Community Operations Manager, Uber

———

Deliver. is a nifty anthology of the key skills and tools one needs to be successful at work. It’s a delightfully written book and brings concepts and lessons to life through a myriad of relatable, interesting and occasionally hilarious anecdotes! For me, Deliver. truly delivered and is a must-read for anyone embarking on or are early in their corporate journey.

–Nihal Sabharwal

Senior Community Operations Manager, Uber

———

Everyone looking for useful tips in building a successful career should read this. Wen-Szu has summarized everything you need to know in this book. I wish I had read this twenty years ago and saved all the time I spent navigating myself.

–Fenton Chau

Program Leader, Uber

Former Director of APAC Operations, Travelzoo

Former Head of APAC Loyalty, ExxonMobil

———

This book is like a pill that makes you smarter (for real).

I have been a big fan of Wen-Szu’s wisdom blogs, and I am so glad that he’s put together his years of research in this book. Be it starting a career or being in the middle of a crisis, the book helps you rise by bringing structure to your thinking. Highly recommend reading if you are an over-thinker, procrastinator or just generally anxious about your work.

–Bhavik Gattani

Product Manager, Uber

———

The ultimate onboarding guide! The lessons helped me survive the steep learning curve after pivoting my career from a hotel receptionist (where following instructions was everything) into a tech start-up. The book taught me how to think, define, and solve problems in a logical way.

–Peter Tu

Senior Community Operations Manager, Uber

———

I experienced the teachings in this book almost six years after I started my corporate journey, and it was a game-changer for me. It’s amazing how the simplest of concepts (e.g. BSP) when progressively layered and nuanced can become so powerful that it changes the way you act, think, and communicate. Consulting firms and new-age tech companies are a world apart from anything else out there and this is a playbook for how to set yourself up for success.

–Sudarshan Dhati

APAC Lead for People Operations, Uber

Deliver.

The untaught lessons to growth hack your career

Copyright © 2021 by Wen-Szu Lin

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

Cover and layout design by R. Jordan P. Santos

Illustrations by Moira Manilao

E-book formatting by Arvyn Cerezo

ISBN 979-8-201-32778-1 (e-book)

To Kenzo, Kayla, Karen, mom, dad, and my in-laws for being incredible COVID-19 lockdown partners over eighteen months (and counting). This book would not have been written without your constant companionship, support, and encouragement.

C o n t e n t s

---

PROLOGUE

Why am I writing this book?

What are the learning principles used in this book?

What are the learning principles used in this book?

How is this book organized?

PART 1:

How to be a Great Individual Performer

The Whys

Seeing the inner drive

The fire within

Red Bull for motivation

The Whats

KonMari for the cluttered mind

The everyday elevator pitch

Everything is a problem

The Hows

The gift of time

Don’t go postal

The Force

PART 2:

How to be a Great Collaborator

Build Relationships

The hundred-million dollar skill

Being easy to work with

Feeling the Golden Trifecta

Manage Relationships

The happiness equation

Have the discussion

The trust equation

Manage People

Feedback is a responsibility

The teachers in us

Superpower

PART 3:

How to be a Great Leader

Set Direction

A computer on every desk and in every home

The secret sauce behind Chipotle

Beyond coffee

Develop Talent

Playing in harmony

The bamboo trees

What if?

Cultivate Culture

Parental guidance

The devil in devil’s advocate

Getting to no

EPILOGUE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

SUMMARY OF KEY INSIGHTS

Why am I writing this book?

October 2001, Irving, Texas

Yes or no. One word. That is all my boss wanted. And yet, out of my mouth came sentence after sentence of data, explanations, and disconnected thoughts. Even with two post-graduate degrees from top universities, I had trouble answering questions in a structured manner. My thoughts were jumbled.

September 2007, Doha, Qatar

The deadlines rolled in like dark, ominous clouds. Every hour, it felt as if more work got added to my plate. My attempt to complete every single task meant I spent over fifteen hours a day at my desk. I felt the quality of my work slipping with each passing moment. Years of formal education did not teach me how to manage my time.

March 2011, Beijing, China

My stomach grumbled. Dozens of employees from our small food business stood outside the restaurant, each waiting for their turn to come in to negotiate an exit package. An aura of mistrust prevailed, as both sides had spent hours with lawyers preparing for the difficult conversation to come. Despite years of working together and hundreds of opportunities to nip the issues in the bud, our relationship with our employees soured to near violence. Instead of directly facing each employee, I slipped out the back door and left the discussion with the lawyers. The multiple people management classes I had taken did not provide me with enough confidence to face difficult conversations such as these.

***

Deliver. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, it means to produce the promised, desired, or expected result.¹ In business, there is no better honor than to be relied upon to consistently deliver. The ability to deliver is critical to all levels, from a new graduate to a seasoned executive. The core competencies required to deliver build on top of each other, rooted in the foundational skills to be a great individual contributor. Surprisingly, most skills are not directly taught in formal education or in the workplace.

Deliver is the word I failed to achieve in each of the scenarios above. Situations that I learned to overcome one-by-one, with lessons that were not articulated to me in school or highlighted in the self-help books I read so much of. Untaught lessons I learned on the job and codified throughout my career. Untaught lessons that taught me how to deliver.

After losing millions of dollars in my late thirties after a failed venture in China, I was forced to reset my career with no tangible assets (I was nearly broke), no job leads (I moved to a new country to be with my family), and no proven corporate record (I only had entry-level roles up to that point). Yet, what I did have were decades of untaught lessons that I put to use.

When an entry-level opportunity at Uber came along, these simple techniques allowed me to growth hack my career at a mind-boggling pace. I went from sitting in a tiny rented office to managing thousands of people in less than three years. This book is my attempt to introduce proven, easy-to-follow techniques for a person to deliver as an individual contributor, as a collaborator, and as a leader.

My life so far has passed in a flash. Elementary school. Middle school. High school. Aikido. Tai Chi. College. First job (internship). Bachelor. More Aikido. Bachelor’s degree. Second job. Still single. Third job. Master’s degree in engineering. Side businesses in real estate. Girlfriend (woohoo!). MBA. Fourth job. She said yes. Entrepreneurial business #1. Living in China. Daughter. Son. Failed business #1. Moved to the Philippines. Opened a restaurant. Failed business #2. Back to corporate life. Middle management. People manager. Now.

The two phases of my life

Figure 1: The two phases of my life

My life has roughly fallen into two phases around education and career. The first phase was as a full-time student, when life seemed simple. Everything was scripted. Hard work could almost guarantee success. Want to get into college? Study hard in classes and test prep, take leadership roles in extracurricular activities or sports, invest time to write thoughtful essays. Want to get a job? Study hard in classes, pick the right courses and major, invest time into interview prep. Each phase was bite-sized and had structural breaks to signify the next stage, from final exams to summer vacations to graduation. Repeat. My journey from education to my first job has represented half of my life so far, and the playbook to be successful was straightforward.

The second phase was my corporate career. The path to being successful in my career has been anything but straightforward. The concept of a corporate ladder seems outdated, as the reality resembles more of a corporate mountain. No defined path or guaranteed skills to reach the top. Moving up requires going right, going left, and even going back before going up. Where is the summit, anyway? There are a million books in hundreds of disciplines tangential to corporate success. Where to start?

My parents were professors from public colleges in Taiwan, so their advice seemed unrelated. There were no readily available mentors to guide me through what was important to learn at the start of my career, what could wait until later, and what I should not waste my time with. Unlike the structure and the instructions I was accustomed to in school, understanding what to learn and master in the corporate world has involved a long series of hits and misses.

According to Peter Capelli, Director of The Wharton School’s Center for Human Resources, the average new employee received 2.5 weeks of training per year in 1979 but dropped to 11 hours per year by 1995. While recent data has been hard to compile, Capelli stated that only a fifth of employees reported receiving on-the-job training from their employers over the past five years by 2011.² Luckily, I joined firms whose advantage was offering corporate training, so I experienced a few courses. They were good, though often specific to a function.

Today, I am fortunate enough to be in a lead role where my teams are expected to perform functions requiring an eclectic set of expertise, from budget management to project management to computer programming to people management to operations to data science to IT to retail management to finance to product management to HR to strategic planning to sales to customer service. My team members are experts in their functions, as are my colleagues around the world. As a result, I recognized a pattern of the principles that most roles require to be successful.

None of the lessons are specific to any function or niche specialty, but they build the foundational capability of what every person needs to succeed in climbing the corporate mountain. These are a glimpse of the untaught lessons I used and refined at Uber. The lessons in the book have been seeded over the past twenty years and are still evolving. They are my prioritization of what has been essential to succeed. For each lesson, I will present the principle, explain why I feel it is important, and showcase time-tested methods that have been effective for my teams and myself.

Who am I writing for?

As I write this book, I have two target audiences in mind.

The poor deserve an excellent organization, is a quote from the president of the Non-Government Organization (NGO) where Mia Santos worked. Mia recalled being part of live police raids and protecting children from the horrors of sexual predators and human traffickers that no one should ever be subjected to. The feeling was fulfilling, to say the least, and reaffirmed Mia’s purpose in life of launching her own NGO one day.

While NGOs are known for fantastic fieldwork, the external reputation is that they cannot analyze data and produce reports that can drive more significant changes. Mia wanted to explore the corporate world to see if there were truths to these statements and learn any critical skills to build her excellent organization. And so Mia joined Uber as a project manager. I have met many people fresh in the corporate world with such inspirational dreams.

This book is for Mia and many like her who are entering the corporate world for the first time.

This can be a starting point to pick up practical techniques or alternate perspectives on how to deliver at work. If the book can help speed up their learning process by even a few percent, I know I would have impacted the world through Mia and others like her.

Then, there is Amit Dubey. Amit was already an experienced manager and leader by the time I met him. Before joining Uber, he was a director at American Express after starting his career in the Indian military. His positivity was infectious in that it seemed as if he smiled more when he was stressed, which was often the case in his role at Uber managing hundreds of people. Amit had a clear vision of what he wanted for his team and inspired them to accomplish it. Under his watch, his team at Uber doubled in size from the new work scope that others wanted his team to manage on their behalf.

In many ways, Amit and his approach reminded me of my younger self (except that Amit is tall and handsome). My younger self was an impatient person who was thirsty for knowledge on self-improvement so I could make an impact in the business world faster. I read hundreds of books and articles on self-improvement. Using a strategy consulting term, I was boiling the ocean (i.e., taking on an impossible task) in my search for self-development advice. There were too many options and no simple filter to prioritize what I needed and when. While I learned more from Amit than he learned from me, this book can hopefully provide new techniques or tips to sharpen his skill sets more quickly.

Mia and Amit represent so many people in similar situations who flashed across my mind as I wrote each chapter. I thought about how the lessons can help them avoid the mistakes I made, perhaps overcome specific challenges, and become more impactful as they change the world.

What are the learning principles used in this book?

The knife lurched forward towards his body with incredible speed, with a pointed sharpness that could pierce an apple in the air. I felt an urge to cover my eyes to avoid witnessing a stabbing. A split second before contact, with a gentle turn of the body and a slight flick to the back of the attacker’s thrusting hand, he avoided the attack. Meanwhile, he directed the forward momentum of the attacker towards a second attacker coming from behind, making both of them fall as they collided with each other. I watched in awe as he easily took down four attackers with gracefulness similar to that of ballet dancers.

This was an Aikido demonstration which left me with one question. How can I learn that?

Coincidentally, I started my career around the same time as the Aikido demonstration. At work, when I saw senior managers managing important scopes and large teams, I had the same question. How can I learn that?

My journey to answer these questions started twenty-five years ago through Aikido. The approach culminated in insights that formed how I learn and how I teach.

Learn the form. Learn the principle. Break the form.

Learn the form. Learn the principle. Break the form, my Aikido instructor, Sensei Howard Flank, would say as we practiced technique after technique. Aikido does not involve kicking, punching, or blocking, so self-defense comes from throws, joint locks, and pins. I was thrown thousands of times for over ten years while learning footwork, body positioning, and foundational Aikido forms. Sensei Flank must have repeated the quote each week, but the impact was similar to teaching a five-year-old Calculus. The meaning did not sink in. However, by practicing the forms thousands of times, I was picking up the principles that Sensei Flank wanted to teach without knowing it. Subtle details about what made each technique work and how one aspect of a technique related to the others sunk in.

It is difficult—if not impossible—to reverse the order of learning. For example, telling someone to throw an attacker by taking their forward energy and directing it towards the ground sounds logical and even simple. One can be told that hundreds of times to no avail. Yet, if someone practices a step-by-step form to throw someone in a specific way, they will pick up details about the form and the underlying principle. Once the person masters that principle, they can apply the same principle by learning how to use the forward momentum of an attacker in many ways; thus, breaking the form.

A few years in, I was not limited to only the specific techniques and forms that Sensei Flank taught. Once I learned the few principles Sensei Flank wanted to teach, I could combine techniques based on the situation at hand. Essentially, I had learned the form, learned the principles, and was starting down the path of breaking the form.

Practice makes perfect. Is it that simple?

In the bestseller book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell introduced the controversial concept that a person needs approximately ten thousand hours of practice to become a master. His estimate took high-level assumptions on practice time for the Beatles, for Bill Gates, and music students at the Berlin music academy to become experts.³ When I calculated the number of hours that Sensei Flank practiced Aikido decades before I met him, the hours sound rational. Practice makes perfect. Is it that simple?

After dozens of hours of individual swimming lessons, I saw how my son, Kenzo, had progressed. What I saw both horrified and entertained me. He swam with a breaststroke for the upper body, matched with a flutter kick like in a freestyle. I learned that the coach was great at getting kids used to the water but was not a skilled, technical swimmer. The coach did not have any proven techniques, so he relied on copying what he saw in other swimmers. His lessons were a repeat of the kids getting used to the water, which my son already was adept at. Kenzo, therefore, was not pushed to learn anything new and anything based on proven techniques. His combination of the breaststroke and freestyle was the result not of his swimming coach. Rather, he copied the most consistent swimming form that he had seen in his life—from watching Mario swim in the game Mario Odyssey on his Nintendo Switch!

Sensei Flank spent hours explaining to us the lineage of the Aikido forms that he was teaching us, and that is all we practiced until we learned the principles. I finally realized why. In the book The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance by Anders Ericsson, the author compiled insights and work from over 100 leading researchers studying the making of experts from diverse disciplines.⁴ What consistently showed up as a key ingredient to develop an expert includes practice, but it also includes two other concepts—deliberate practice and learning from experts. According to a Harvard Business Review article The Making of an Expert, deliberate practice entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or even at all. To ensure that one knows what to apply the deliberate practice on, skilled coaches help the students save time by sharing and providing feedback based on proven techniques.⁵

Similarly, Sensei Flank was insistent on teaching only the standard forms that had been passed down for generations, forms that have been proven to work. Our training involved the deliberate practice of techniques that we were not good at, weaved together to help us understand critical principles. He did not deviate from standard forms to add his own twist.

***

How does this relate to the corporate world? The quote learn the form, learn the principle, break the form applies to the foundational skills needed for the corporate world as well. The same goes for proven forms and deliberate practice. Management books often focus on explaining the principles. Yet, without the proven forms to help a person get there, how can one learn the principles without a lot of wasted effort through trial and error? Some corporate training programs have materials for teaching the forms, but they are proprietary and limited in scope.

The learning approach in this book is based on the same methodologies used to pass down Aikido principles around the world for more than a century. The same learning approach mirrors the results of studies from over a hundred academic researchers.

While principles are introduced, what is important are the forms that have been time-tested to teach the principles. Some forms are the ones that I narrowed down after testing out hundreds of techniques from decades of experience. Most forms are re-applied from other disciplines or areas of life for the workplace. Only where there were no forms that I could find did I create my own forms and frameworks.

Please note that the techniques could seem unnecessary and time-consuming initially, but they work as long as the effort is put in. Like a martial arts practitioner who needs to be thrown and to throw others thousands of times to understand the principles to take someone down, a person needs to practice these techniques repeatedly to understand the underlying principles.

How is this

book organized?

The book is organized using the principle of inside out, starting with the individual before expanding to interactions with others and beyond. The book is organized into three parts as seen in Figure 2. I call it the Career Climber Model. Each step reflects the capabilities that one must master. Together, they form the foundation required to climb the corporate mountain.

Part 1 focuses on the self and how to become a great individual contributor. This part is the foundation that a person must build as they start their career. The material represents most of the book, and focuses on three areas—the whys, the whats, and the hows. Each area introduces practical techniques for managing motivations, developing hard skills, and cultivating soft skills.

Part 2 focuses on becoming a great collaborator, with discussions on how to build relationships, how to manage relationships, and how to manage people.

Part 3 touches on the building blocks that a leader needs to create a winning organization. Both Part 2 and Part 3 leverage the foundational skills learned in Part 1.

The book is meant to be both an introduction and a reference. An introduction to the principles on how to deliver at work, and a reference to the techniques used to learn the principles. There are far too many techniques to absorb at one time. After being introduced to the key principles, identify specific areas of focus for yourself and apply them one at a time.

Real learning comes with the application of the techniques until they become a habit. In Aikido, some principles took only thousands of repetitions over years to understand. Some principles still escape me today. Similarly, with repeated practice of the techniques in this book, the principles will become clear, though at a different pace for each principle and each person. Moving up the steps indicates progress and success.

How the book is organized

Figure 2: How the book is organized

Before you assist others, always put on your oxygen mask first.

Imagine three new people on the team. Person A has technical and relationship-building skills that most envy, a person who is naturally loved by others and who is smarter than most. Yet, Person A is lazy and simply not motivated to do much. Person B has a great attitude to grow, has an attractive personality that everyone wants to work with, and has a work ethic that everyone admires. Yet, Person B makes technical mistakes, from basic math