What do you do for an encore?

“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.”

Jonas Salk

As a Syracuse alumnus and sports fan, I’m looking forward to this upcoming football season. Orange fans are excited for this season after last season’s 10-3 breakthrough, the first time that Syracuse has won ten football games in a season since 2001. Season ticket sales are up this year (and I’m happy to say that I am one of those season ticket holders). I’m looking forward to attending games this season!

In a recent interview, Syracuse football coach Dino Babers said that getting the team to break through with a great season (after years of mediocre ones) was the “easy” part. The harder part, he said, is maintaining it. As he often puts it, he wants to be “consistently good, not occasionally great.” Breaking through is a great thing, but after you’ve done so, how do you maintain that success?

I thought about this recently in regard to SQL Saturday presentations. One of my friends and fellow speakers gives a great presentation, but I do have one concern about it: it’s only one presentation. I’m not sure how long he’ll be speaking at SQL Saturday if he keeps submitting the same presentation again and again. I’d like to see him do more presentations, and I hope to see him at more events. Yes, he has a good presentation, but what does he do for an encore?

It’s for that reason why I look for more presentation ideas. As of this article, I have a brand new presentation idea that, right now, only exists in the back of my head. I listed it so that I’d remember to work on it. If I come up with what might potentially be a good presentation idea, I’ll set the idea aside so I can work on it. I want to make sure that I have fresh ideas. I love speaking at SQL Saturday, and I’ve been doing it for four years. I want to keep doing so. To do that, I want to make sure I have new material. While I do occasionally recycle my presentations (it’s unavoidable), I try not to resubmit the same presentations over and over to events.

For those of you who are looking to get your career off the ground, the same holds true for career endeavors. A great job that you did on a single project will often be enough to get you in the door. But once you’re in the door, how do you stay there? Breaking through on a project is the easy part; the harder part is sustaining that success. Once you’ve achieved something, can you do it again? And again?

If you are able to sustain success, you develop a reputation as someone who can deliver. That’s how you build a career. Achievements are great, but once you attain them, what do you do for an encore?