Real Recognizes Real (And Other Things I Wish Someone Told Me Sooner)

I haven't been in cybersecurity since I started my career back in 2018, so I appreciate Chad pulling me in for this one. He's known me since I was a kid, trying to figure out what being a professional even meant. After college, I landed my first job, and Chad was already seasoned. Somehow, a kid from Pompano Beach, FL, and a guy from Camden, NJ found common ground, and we've been tight ever since. Real recognizes real. That goes for anywhere you go.

When I started my professional career, I was not the sharpest tool in the toolbox. It was rough. Nobody taught me how to be a professional. But I knew what I stood for, and that's what let me connect with people who could teach me the game. The skills that got me through college and everything I dealt with growing up needed to be refined for the environment I was in. Same skills. New context.

So that's my first question for you: whatever brought you to this site today, whether it's career stuff or something more personal, what are the skills you look back on and think, "I'm glad I have this in my toolbox"?

Life doesn't get harder; the problems look different.

There's a quote I think about more than I'd like to admit. Life doesn't get harder; the problems look different. I might not have a hammer in my toolbox, but if a nail needs hammering, the back of a screwdriver works just as fine. Eventually, you find the hammer, and by then, you've already figured out three other ways around the problem. That's what thinking outside the box actually looks like. When something comes at you, and it will, how do you shape the situation so you end up at an advantage?

That requires knowing yourself. Strengths and weaknesses, both. Some folks think working on weaknesses is setting yourself up for failure because the success stories they admire don't mention any. What they're missing is that there isn't one playbook. There's your playbook, my playbook, Chad's playbook, and everybody else's. What you miss by studying someone else's success is what makes you beautifully unique. That story you're fawning over is peppered with weaknesses and failures the person had to overcome. They don't lead with those.

So be you.

Around high school, I told myself that if I put the same energy into schoolwork that I put into running around the block with my friends, things would look up. Everything I've built since traces back to that young Chris who had so many ideas and was determined to see them through. I grew up between two stop signs. These days, I get to travel the world. I was never supposed to be here, but I stayed true to who I was and went after credible mentors. Because at the end of the day, I don't know what I don't know.

I've always been a fashion guy, and as a young professional, I made it a point to show up to work in a suit. Sharp. Intentional. That caught on around the office. Years later, I became a menswear stylist. That led me to fashion school. A fashion school conversation led me to the crypto quant world I'm in now. You never know where life's going to take you when you let what you actually love show up at work.

We don't take losses; we only take wins or lessons.

People always ask if I'd do anything different if I were starting my company. The honest answer is no, because the long nights, the early mornings, the blood, sweat, and tears all made me who I am. We don't take losses; we only take wins or lessons. But if you're asking what I'd do tactically with what I know now? I'd write down my mission, in my own words, on day one.

Sit down and write your personal mission statement. Not for LinkedIn. For you. What are you actually here to do?

Because your gift isn't for you, it's for the world. A tree doesn't eat its own fruit. You pluck it, plant the seed somewhere else, and the cycle keeps going. So think about the legacy you want to leave (no pun intended), and how the person you are right now, standing where you're standing, can think beyond the norm to make it real.

Written by: Chris Cyrille (LinkedIn, Instagram)