The three decades of corporate life that, if well-thought-out, could lead you to corporate freedom

Corporate freedom is not retirement. It is the possibility to own your destiny and have the freedom to choose to focus on the intersection of your passion and what you are great at. It could well be the corporation, but it could be something completely different or a completely different allocation of your time (the scarcest resource on earth) so you will never look back with regret.

There are three well-defined decades for those with the ambition to pursue a successful corporate career and reach, as early as possible, the freedom to choose to stay or not at the corporation. In each one of those periods the approach and focus should be substantially different.

In the twenties you just need to focus on learning as much as you can, equipping yourself with those skills that you will need to put into practice on the following decades; especially those soft skills with a longer expiry date that make the difference. Avoid the trap of focusing on salary at this stage; just be open-minded, curious, learn, experiment and do. Try to enjoy the journey rather than focusing too much on the outcome.

On the thirties you should start to apply those learnings and relationships generated on the first decade. You should be able to lead teams and expose yourself to challenges, winning and losing battles but always learning and developing your skills. Now the focus should be on maturing your leadership style and also on returning back to your teams some of the learnings picked up on your journey. You should be able to make it to the country management team or above by the end of this decade to be on track.

On the forties, you should be operating at Executive level and potentially moving horizontally, achieving corporate longevity or changing companies at that level. Although you need to keep being curious and learning as a constant, the focus on this decade should be to ensure economic freedom by the end of the decade. I am a firm believer that the fifteen years that go from 50 to 65 years old are worth three times more than the following fifteen, so you better ensure you adjust your awareness sensors and shape what you are doing after your forties so you don’t look back with regret.