The Four Stages of Anyone’s Career

I recently read The Garner Files: a Memoir by James Garner and Jon Winokur. Garner was perhaps best known as Jim Rockford in the long-running TV show The Rockford Files, but he also worked the big screen in movies like The Great Escape with Steve McQueen. Garner’s television and movie career spanned five decades before he passed away in 2014.

In his book, Garner talks about “the four stages of an actor’s career.” (The original idea came from Hugh O’Brian, an actor from the 1950s and 1960s who starred in a TV series called The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp. O’Brian included an additional stage in his “Five Most Important Stages in the Life of an Actor,” but since Garner’s book is still fresh on my mind let’s go with his version.)

Let’s do this because these “stages” can apply to any type of career, and this exercise can pertain to a businessperson, an athlete, volunteers at church or at civic organizations and any expert. You need only to insert your own name instead of Garner’s.

So consider these stages and questions as Garner did—put yourself in his place—and see what your answers tell you:

1. Who is James Garner?
2. Get me James Garner.
3. Get me a James Garner type.
4. Who is James Garner?

Let’s look at this in terms of a business career. If you’re in Stage 1, it’s probably still early in your career. You’re trying to get established. You want to make a name for yourself. In order to do this, you need to be a consistent and reliable contributor; you need to provide value to your company and your clients.

If you’re in Stage 2, you have arrived. You might be the hot new star at your office. Maybe you’re even a proven business leader in your community—the go-to person in your industry. You are serious about your career, and you’ve worked hard for your success. You probably have put in the 10,000 hours of deliberate practice that author Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers, says are necessary to achieve mastery in a field. In other words, you’ve paid your dues.

In Stage 3, you are what Hollywood calls the “rock star.” You are legendary at what you do, and your name is synonymous with your occupation. You’ve proven yourself year after year—possibly decade after decade—and people are looking to hire folks who share the behaviors, results and track record you’re known for achieving.

Then, of course, there’s Stage 4, which might or might not be retirement. Savvy people who find themselves in Stage 4 often reinvent themselves and therefore remain relevant (or become relevant again in another way). Actors who did this include Madonna, Tony Bennett (think of his collaboration with Lady Gaga) and the ever-popular Betty White. Business examples include Netflix; Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway; Steve Jobs with Apple, Inc.; trendy Panera Bread, which used to be St. Louis Bread Company; and Colonel Harland David Sanders who started KFC in his 60s. I also should mention Ronald Reagan who went from the big screen to the White House when he became president at age 69.

The takeaway today is this:  Stage 4 is vitally important because it can lead right back to stages 1, 2 and 3.

If you find yourself in a situation where you no longer feel relevant, you don’t have to be stuck there! If you’re in this stage, maybe it’s because you have not changed when change was necessary.

I challenge you to go from Stage 4 back to Stage 1 then move on to the other (more rewarding) stages. The good news is that it won’t take you as long this time around because you have experience and a proven track record. If it’s time for a do-over or a tune-up, consider reading Pamela Mitchell’s The 10 Laws of Career Reinvention.

As George Eliot said:  “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”