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“Take care of your job and your career will take care of itself.”
That’s the sole piece of advice Brad Shaw, former Home Depot CCO, has for young professionals.
Shaw shares with Business Insider that he believes young people should live in the moment and focus on being the best at whatever it is they’re currently doing instead of spending time worrying about their future. Shaw’s philosophy is that if you spend time being the best at what you do, you’ll eventually become a better executive.
He says the best career advice he’s ever received was from Ted Waitt, founder and CEO of Gateway, who was Shaw’s boss when he was 30-years-old running communications.
“Being in the C-suite at that age was pretty intimidating and I was a bit brittle when it came to criticism of me or my team by my colleagues, and it showed in meetings. Ted told me to relax, don’t take it personally, and focus on fixing what’s not working, and everything will be fine. It was.”
Shaw retired in March 2015 after 11 years as Chief Communications Officer at The Home Depot.
