The Parable of the Marbles and What it Means For Career Decisions
A quick read on short and long term career choices
If you started your career at Deloitte between the years of 2008-2013 you probably heard a story about the parable of the marbles. As I’ve reflected back upon my career and the thought more about the decisions and investments that I made and the relationships that I built, I felt like this was a good story to illustrate how to think about choices and guides to thinking through how to proceed in your career.
The parable of the marbles
Imagine you are given a jar to collect marbles. Think of the jar as your own career and think of marbles as what you want to fill it with. Every day you show up as your best self and proactively engage in your work, you have the chance to earn a marble.
Think of every time you do a good job, or pitch in to help out someone else, or do a favor for someone as an opportunity to collect a marble. Over time, you get enough marbles that you can store in a jar. The reason why you want marbles is that at various opportunities down the road, you’ll want to exchange those marbles for things you might want or need. For example, let’s say you want to work on a particular type of project or a certain type of client, and you need some help connecting with the right people to get on that project - that’s a good chance to cash in on your marbles.
Early in your career, this is a great chance to acquire marbles. As you move through your career, gain new skills, build your credibility and relationships, and look to make decisions, this is your chance to cash in on marbles. And as a leader (either in formal or informal capacity) and certainly as a manager, you have the chance to help others either acquire or cash in on their marbles.
For some people, you may think this is a bit much, or a bit too corporate-y or machiavellian and I wouldn’t fault you for thinking that. But I think the lesson to take away from this is regardless of what you think is twofold:
That when you build credibility and deliver results, it opens you up to additional opportunities
Sometimes you want to focus on the short term and other times it makes sense to focus on the long term. It’s a mix of both, but particularly early on in your career, it helps to focus on gaining marbles which allows you the chance to eventually cash in on marbles
Finally, something funny happens as you gain marbles - you get good at doing your job and even when you don’t want to cash in a marble, opportunities start to come your way, which in some ways, give you even more chances to earn and acquire marbles.
Ways to earn marbles
Over the years, I’ve found numerous ways to “earn marbles.” Here are a few that have led to good results:
Take on a volunteer project that nobody on your team wants to do, and deliver exceptional work
Ask to help with the hiring or recruiting process, and help the hiring manager to the degree that they need help
Offer to help a colleague or teammate out as they are trying to get a project over the finish line
Offer to connect your peers or teammates to other people inside or outside of your company
Do some research or analysis on a particular issue, domain or discipline, and then share it with relevant people
Personal Story: How I earned (and cashed in) marbles
After about the first six months at Deloitte I developed my first real career goal - to get sponsored to go to business school. As I talked to people who had gone this route, I realized that I would probably need a bunch of things to go my way for this to happen
Exceptional Performance on my projects
Good relationships with Partners who would invest in my career
The right types of projects that would demonstrate my readiness for business school
Getting support for pursuing an MBA from Deloitte leadership
For the next 12-18 months, I spent my time collecting marbles related to those three goals. In some cases, it meant taking on a firm initiative where I could build relationships and get visibility with partners who I knew would have a decision on whether or not I got sponsored for my education. For others, it meant taking on client projects even when they weren't always my first choice because I believed it would earn me marbles I would need down the road. And it also meant spending time getting to know and building relationships with the key leaders who would have a say in whether or not I was sponsored for the program, which meant some in-person meetings, virtual check-ins, and every now and then, checking in with them to support them however I could.
Eventually, I got sponsored, and was in the middle of my application process to MBA programs when I got waitlisted at one of my target schools. This was a time when I had to cash in some of my marbles that I had earned in order to get to my goal of being admitted. Earlier on in my time at Deloitte I had worked with a number of Alums of this specific MBA program on some firm initiatives. While it wasn’t a strong relationship, I had made a positive impact on the initiative and they viewed me favorably. Eventually, I reached out to them and explained my situation of being waitlisted and my desire to go to that school. It turns out, 2 of the people I reached out to had a good relationship with the admissions department, and they went ahead and sent recommendation letters on my behalf. A few months later, I was admitted to the program.
Another example of this comes from my most recent role. I had been mentoring a colleague who was doing exceptional work but was in a difficult role on her team due to some organizational changes and really needed to find a new opportunity. It just so happened that someone else at our company who was higher up (VP level) and someone I viewed as a mentor was hiring for a new role around the level of my colleague, and even though they were in the final stages of interviewing I asked the VP to see if they’d be willing to consider my teammate who was looking for a new role. Even though they were in the final stages, she was willing to take a look especially because I had helped her out with a recent initiative she was working on. Fortunately, it was a mutual fit, and my colleague was able to move into the role. It ended up being a great match.
What this means for you
Individual Employees - How many marbles do you have in your jar, and are you being thoughtful about how you collect marbles? This doesn’t mean you need to start volunteering to do everything under the sun, but should be a good wake up call to think about how you are investing your time as it goes in terms of the relationships you build, the energy you exert on things, and the decisions you are making to help you work toward your own career goals. Having longer term career goals are great, but usually take some marbles along the way to get to where you want to go.
People Managers and Formal and Informal Leaders - As I alluded to briefly, as a leader or manager, you have the opportunity to help others earn (or cash in) on marbles. Doing this is good because it helps you invest in your people, which leads to better outcomes for them, and stronger relationships that can be good in the short and long term, such as greater engagement, career growth, or overall satisfaction.
Furthermore, this is something I believe strongly, and also, something that is super important especially if you care about making the workforce more equitable and inclusive - marginalized populations, by the very nature of both societal constructs and biases in organizational dynamics tend to have less chances at earning marbles. So if you are someone who is in one of these positions or, if you feel a little unsure of how you want to go about applying this for yourself, think about how you might be able to use this analogy to help other people around you.
The reason why marbles are important is because in the company and organization as we know it, we need the help of other things - things being people, resources, projects in order to achieve our goals. Marbles are what help us find those things, and get what we need to achieve our goals. Consider what marbles you have, how you are earning marbles, and when it makes sense to cash in on your marbles as you think about the career choices, opportunities and relationships you build in your day to day work.