#62: The Career Acceleration Formula

Everyone asks me how to become a CMO. They expect me to talk about degrees, experience, or networking. But the real answer is simpler and harder than they think.

Most people are asking the wrong question entirely. They're focused on credentials instead of capability building. They want to know the steps, the timeline, the perfect pathway. But after 17 years in this industry, from building affiliate websites in my bedroom to running marketing for one of the world's largest sports betting companies, I've learned that career acceleration isn't about following a formula. It's about building the capability to handle increasingly difficult challenges.

The secret isn't in the path you choose. It's in how intentionally you design your own difficulty curve.

The Passion-Challenge-Skill Stack

The most successful marketers I know combine deep passion with technical expertise and a systematic approach to challenge-seeking. It's not enough to have just one of these elements. You need all three working together.

My own journey started with this exact combination. I was 17, playing online poker obsessively, studying software engineering, and questioning everything. When I discovered PokerStrategy was giving away free money, my first thought wasn't "great, free cash." It was "how the hell are they making money?" That curiosity led me to discover affiliate marketing, which led me to combine my poker passion with my coding skills to build websites.

But here's what most people miss: passion isn't just "nice to have". It's the fuel for the grinding years. When I was building those first 10-15 affiliate sites, working until 3 AM, learning SEO through pure trial and error, the only thing that kept me going was a genuine obsession with the space. You can't fake that level of commitment.

The technical component is equally crucial. Too many marketers today want to skip the hands-on work and jump straight to strategy. But you can't be strategic about something you don't deeply understand. I wrote every piece of content myself, learned HTML, figured out user journeys from the player perspective. That technical foundation became my competitive edge later when I was making strategic decisions.

Most importantly, you need to systematically seek bigger challenges. As Zuckerberg said, "Ideas don't come out fully formed, they only become clearer as you work on them. You just have to get started” I was always throwing myself into situations where I had no idea what I was doing. Each new challenge became a benchmark. A checklist of skills I needed to develop to succeed.

The key is identifying your own passion-skill intersections. What gets you genuinely excited? What technical capabilities do you have or can you build? Where can you create challenges that force you to grow? The magic happens at the intersection of all three.

The Mentor vs. Self-Taught Decision Matrix

Here's something most people get wrong about mentorship: they want shortcuts, not transformation. They expect mentors to hand them a roadmap when what they really need is someone to help them navigate the unknown.

I spent years believing I could figure everything out myself. Then I hit a wall. My role became too easy, days turned into routine, and I felt stuck. That's when I realised the mentor question isn't "Do I need one?" but "What type of growth do I need right now?"

My approach was systematic. I created a list of 10 people. Not just successful professionals, but humans I wanted to become like in 10-15 years. I wasn't looking for an idol; I was looking for inspiration. The difference matters. An idol is someone you worship from afar. An inspiration is someone whose journey you can learn from and adapt.

I reached out to all of them. Most didn't respond, a few had brief conversations, but one connection turned into something transformative. We've been working together for over five years now, and it's evolved from a formal mentor-mentee relationship into a genuine friendship where we both generate value for each other.

But here's the thing: mentorship only works if you're already moving. A mentor can't give you passion or drive. They can only help you channel it more effectively. They're not there to tell you what to do; they're there to help you think through what you're already trying to do.

The practical steps are simple but most people never actually try them: identify who you want to become, research those people obsessively, find ways to add value to their world, and reach out thoughtfully. The key is approaching it as "how can I contribute to your mission?" not "what can you do for me?"

Timeless vs. Timely Skills - The Career Portfolio

Your career success depends on building the right mix of foundational and tactical skills. Get this balance wrong, and you'll either become irrelevant or get stuck in execution mode forever.

Timeless skills are the marketing fundamentals that haven't changed in 100 years. Whether it's the 4 Ps, 6 Ps, or however many Ps you want—it's about understanding your product, your audience, your promotion strategy, your distribution. These are the same whether you're selling soft drinks or sports betting. The user journey is always the same: awareness, consideration, conversion. Master these foundations, and you can market anything.

Timely skills are the tactical, seasonal knowledge that changes rapidly. Social media strategies, new ad formats, influencer marketing techniques, gamification frameworks. All the specific tactics that work today but might be obsolete tomorrow. The only way to acquire these is through hands-on experience. You can't read your way to understanding them; you have to get your hands dirty.

Here's the trap most people fall into: they focus on only one type. Junior marketers obsess over the latest tactics without understanding the underlying principles. Senior marketers rely on foundational knowledge but lose touch with what's actually working in the field.

The secret is staying hands-on as you advance. Even as a CMO, you need to be what I call a "human champion" within your organisation. Someone who can extract tactical knowledge from the front lines and apply strategic thinking to it. Sometimes a tiny framework implemented by a junior employee, combined with your strategic perspective, can turn into a monster marketing campaign.

The danger isn't in being wrong about which skills to develop. The danger is in stopping the development entirely.

The Entrepreneurial vs. Corporate Path Choice

Everyone wants to know which path is "better". Starting your own thing or climbing the corporate ladder. But the path matters less than the intensity of challenge you create for yourself.

The entrepreneurial route gives you unlimited upside but demands everything from you. There are no days off, no holidays, no separation between your work and your life. The reward is higher, but you need the personality for it. If you need stability, predictable income, or clear structure, this path will destroy you.

The corporate route gives you stability and clear progression but can limit your learning speed. You get exposure to bigger budgets, more sophisticated operations, and established systems. But you might also get trapped in process-heavy environments where innovation gets strangled by bureaucracy.

Here's what I learned from doing both: neither path is permanent, and both teach you different things. I spent years as an entrepreneur, then deliberately chose to work for a major operator because I wanted to test myself at the highest corporate level. That experience taught me things I never could have learned on my own.

The real question isn't which path to choose. It's whether you're creating enough challenge to keep growing. Are you pushing yourself into situations where you might fail? Are you taking on problems that force you to develop new capabilities?

The path is just the vehicle. The destination is your ability to handle increasingly complex challenges.

The Real Career Acceleration Secret

Career acceleration isn't about following someone else's playbook. It's about building the capability to write your own.

The secret ingredient isn't passion, or skills, or mentorship, or even the path you choose. It's your willingness to deliberately seek difficulty. To throw yourself into situations where you don't know what you're doing. To embrace the discomfort of growth over the comfort of competence.

Most people want career advancement without challenge escalation. They want the title, the salary, the recognition. But they don't want the sleepless nights, the impossible deadlines, the problems that keep you awake trying to solve them.

But that's exactly what separates the people who get stuck from the people who keep growing. The ones who advance are the ones who, when faced with a choice between the easy path and the hard path, consistently choose difficulty.

So here's my challenge to you: what's the hardest professional problem you could take on right now? What would force you to grow in ways that scare you a little?

Pick that challenge. Start today. Everything else is just details.