It don’t mean a Thing: Career and Life Lessons from “Hamburger Hill”

“Hamburger Hill” was a Movie based on the true story of an American airborne unit that fought the North Vietnamese Army to take a hill in 1969 during the Vietnam War. They went up and down and up and down, losing friends to finally occupying the hill. Only to withdraw and leave it to the Vietnamese army after.  

All the sacrifice and pain ultimately for nothing. No wonder so many soldiers become cynical and jaded after. And this also seems to be the situation many of our vets from the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan find themselves in. Let down by incompetent officers and betrayed by venal and cowardly politicians who sent them there to begin with. I can’t imagine the hell of this. 

It’s symbolic of many of our careers albeit not anywhere close to the danger and pain these soldiers suffered. Immense sacrifice with no commensurate reward or achievement. It’s a hell of a painful realization. Maybe that our work just doesn’t matter very much. 

I felt this way near the end of my years at Yahoo! or 500 Startups as the company fell into a death spiral. That ultimately, that extra revenue or investments a year I brought in for the company, just really didn’t matter. All the missed time with my family, the damage to my health and the stress of hitting and beating your business groups P&L. As the soldiers say, in the end: “It don’t mean a Thing.”

This is why you absolutely need to re-evaluate your work every year. At the minimum: 

Are you learning new things? 

Do you still like your colleagues? 

Are you getting paid enough? Is the juice worth the squeeze? 

Does the work support your larger mission and goal in life? 

It helps you to understand whether the hill you picked is the right one. If not, stop climbing it and find a new hill worthy of your talents, energy & precious time.