There’s this secret, quiet truth about work that nobody tells you in business school. It’s simple, and it’s brilliant. The best kind of job—the most secure kind of job—is the one where keeping you employed is somebody else’s problem.
Think about it.
If you’re the best carpenter in the neighbourhood, the one who can fix that weird wobbly door no one else can figure out, your clients will bend over backwards to keep you happy. They’ll call you first. They’ll pay you a premium. They will protect you because you solve their specific, annoying problem. You’re not just a commodity; you’re the solution.
In business jargon, they talk about “push” versus “pull” markets. Do you have to push your product onto people, or do people automatically get pulled to you because they need what you offer?
When choosing a career, always, always aim for a job that’s a “pull.” Make your role so specific, so crucial, that people will flock to you. Make your presence so valuable that your continued employment becomes their headache, not yours.
Here’s a great example. Say your big dream is to go to the US for work. You could try to do it all yourself—navigate the visas, the companies, the paperwork. That’s a mountain of a problem for you to solve, and the smallest mistake could send you back home.
Or… you could join an Indian company whose entire business model is to send people to the US to solve offshore problems. Now, who has the bigger headache? The company does. It’s their business to get you there. Securing your visa, finding the client, training you, sorting out the logistics—that’s all their problem.
Your only job? To be so good at what you do that they can’t afford to not send you.
This shifts the entire dynamic. You’re no longer living in fear of being fired. They’re living with the fear of losing you. When your job security is tied to their business success, they will work tirelessly to keep you in the game. It’s like being the one guy who knows the secret recipe to your grandmother’s famous rasam—they’re not going to let you go anywhere, are they?
This isn’t about being lazy or entitled. It’s about being strategic. You still have to be excellent. You have to be good enough to be the solution. But once you are, you get to focus on being the best plumber, the best carpenter, the best problem-solver. All the other messy details become someone else’s burden.
So, go find a problem to solve, and make sure that keeping you on the job is someone else’s biggest priority.
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