Introduction
Hi Everyone, thanks for joining me!
So, I recently re-watched The Godfather Part 2, one of my favorite movies, and realized there are many career lessons to be learned from Fredo Corleone’s blunder. In this episode, I’ll start by providing a brief background on The Godfather and Fredo Corleone for context. Then, I’ll talk about what I think are the career lessons from Fredo’s blunder that could help us grow, and I’ll share some examples where I’ve encountered and applied them over the years.
The Godfather, brief background
The Godfather movies profile the lives and business of the powerful Corleone crime family and is headed by Vito Corleone. In Part 2, Vito Corleone has died, and has passed along control of the family to his son, Michael, who is Fredo Corleone’s younger brother. Michael’s ambition is to make the family business legal by pursuing prospects in the hotel and casino industries. Michael survives an assassination attempt, and it is later revealed that Fredo, tired of being in Michael’s shadow and seeking power, has been working with the business partners that tried to assassinate Michael. Upon learning of Fredo’s betrayal, Michael has Fredo assassinated.
Now, the part of the movie that was the inspiration for this episode is the pivotal scene where Michael confronts Fredo about the assassination attempt. Fredo gets really emotional, and he starts spilling his guts, saying things like he wants to have something on his own, he feels stepped over all the time, and that he wants respect. Fredo resents having his younger brother “taking care” of him by assigning him seemingly menial tasks like looking after nightclubs and picking up people from the airport.
There’s a lot to talk about here, and coming up I’ll discuss some takeaway points.
Career lessons from Fredo’s blunder
So, let’s get back to the lessons learned from Fredo’s betrayal. I thought of three lessons when I watched that pivotal scene that I’ll elaborate on here, which I’ll loosely categorize as “avoid the attribute trap”, “understand your strengths”, and “pursue landscape shifts”.
Lesson 1: Avoid the attribute trap
The first lesson, to avoid the attribute trap, is evident in Fredo’s implicit expectation that because he’s Michael’s older brother, an attribute that Fredo has, their father should have put him in charge of the family business instead of having Michael in charge and assigning him seemingly menial tasks.
How many times have we seen this scenario play out? I’ve seen middle managers not take on certain projects, as essential and career building as they may be, because the nature of the project did not seem prestigious enough to them somehow for their backgrounds, only to have their teams end up underutilized and frustrated. Or, I’ve seen colleagues, and classmates when I was a student long ago, have a certain mindset about what they should and should not be working on based on a particular degree or credential they hold.
Falling into the attribute trap is understandable, since we live in our own heads, cherish our attributes as part of our identity, and hence have an idealized version of what we should be doing. However, the risk of staying in our own heads and maintaining this idealism is our becoming untethered from reality, which could have real-world negative consequences. As we wait for the opportunity that’s supposedly worthy of our seniority or credentials, time passes us by, needed work for our employers or our customers doesn’t get done, and we personally fail to accumulate practical, real world experiences that would allow us to prove ourselves and set the stage for our own growth and advancement, so everyone loses.
We can fight this issue by focusing outwardly on outcomes rather than inwardly on our attributes because that’s where the tangible rewards will come from. In a previous role, I had developed a software tool for biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers to visualize their clinical trial data. The problem was that the sales team was not accustomed to selling such a product, so I ended up spending a lot of time helping the team in sales calls, trade shows, and customer support. Initially, I wrongly had a Fredo-like attitude, thinking that because of my technical credentials I should be spending my time making ever-more sophisticated analyses and software, instead of chasing customers. By shifting my focus to driving the outcome toward getting the software in the hands of as many customers as possible, the customers actually benefited from the tool, my employer made more money so I earned bonuses, and I gained really valuable experience interacting with customers that I otherwise would not have had, along with their insights to further improve the tool, so everyone won.
Lesson 2: Understand your strengths
The second lesson, to understand your strengths, is evident in how Fredo fails to understand and leverage his own. He’s portrayed as having a nice disposition and being generally likeable, which are actually traits that could enable him to excel in the nightclub and hospitality responsibilities Michael assigns him. Had he leaned into those tasks, who knows what other opportunities could have opened up for his advancement.
It’s important for us to assess what we naturally have an inclination toward, to work with it instead of fighting against it, and to be open to new experiences that help us discover our natural inclinations. In my previous example from my past software role, as I supported the sales team, I discovered that I actually really enjoyed and was effective at interacting with customers, understanding their needs, and translating them into analytics and technology requirements. Because I recognized this inclination in myself, I chose subsequent roles in my career that were not purely hands-on technical, something that would have been unimaginable to me without that experience.
Lesson 3: Pursue landscape shifts
The third lesson, to pursue landscape shifts, is evident in Fredo’s failure to notice and take advantage of the fundamental change happening in the family business from dark underworld dealings to legal hotel, casino, and nightclub establishments. Had he focused outwardly on outcomes and recognized his inclination toward being likeable, he would have taken on those seemingly menial hospitality tasks Michael assigns him in order to build specialized, hands-on experience and insights in those new and expanding enterprises, which would have made him uniquely positioned to grow into a powerful leader in the family business.
I think what prevents us from pursuing landscape shifts, even if we’re able to identify them and their potential, is that initially, the shift is happening toward something new and undeveloped. Since the new thing is not established, there are no tasks or projects to be done commensurate with sophisticated credentials or work experience, and we get the impression that all we’ll do is menial and we’ll somehow hurt our careers by pursuing the shifts.
Similar to the first lesson, I think we can fight this issue by focusing outwardly on outcomes because that’s where the tangible rewards will come from. Pursuing landscape shifts reminds me of Jeff Bezos in the early days of Amazon.com, when he’d personally respond to customer service emails and pack shipments. Bezos already had a successful career in financial technology when he founded Amazon, but recognized that e-commerce was the future. He raced to become the dominant online bookseller in any way possible. Securing Amazon’s foothold and ultimate supremacy in e-commerce was far more important and fruitful to him than whether or not his day-to-day tasks were commensurate with his impressive computer science background and founder title.
Conclusion
So, with that, these are the lessons I took away from one of the pivotal scenes in The Godfather Part 2, which is one of my favorite movies. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I look forward to catching up again in the next one! Thanks again for joining me!
Innovate and Improve 