Have you ever found yourself at a professional crossroads, feeling like you’ve hit a plateau despite your best efforts? Perhaps you’ve been diligently working, honing your craft, but the big breaks or dream projects seem just out of reach. It’s a common experience, where the path to true career acceleration feels obscured by routine or self-doubt. Sometimes, all it takes is a shift in perspective, a deliberate change in how we approach our professional lives, to truly unlock new levels of success.
In the insightful video above, Bobby Chiu shares five powerful strategies that not only propelled his own journey but offer a clear roadmap for anyone looking to boost their career significantly. These aren’t just theoretical concepts; they’re actionable principles rooted in real-world experience. Let’s delve deeper into these transformative ideas, exploring how you can integrate them into your own professional framework to achieve unparalleled growth.
Cultivating Genuine Connections, Not Just Contacts
The first and arguably most foundational tip for robust career growth is to make genuine connections with others. Bobby Chiu emphasizes that true opportunities seldom arise from merely submitting applications or passively waiting for the next job posting. Instead, they often spring from the relationships we nurture over time, from individuals who know us, trust us, and are willing to vouch for our capabilities. Imagine if every interaction you had wasn’t viewed as a potential transaction, but as an opportunity to genuinely connect with another human being.
This approach moves beyond the transactional nature of traditional networking, where individuals often focus on what they can gain. Instead, it advocates for building authentic friendships, free from immediate business agendas. When you form a strong bond with someone, the idea of immediately asking for favors, like job recommendations or introductions to specific studios, feels unnatural. Furthermore, when these connections are genuine, people remember you for the right reasons—your character, your passion, your helpfulness—making them more likely to think of you when opportunities arise, without you even having to ask. Bobby highlights that many of his long-standing friendships have never involved direct work collaboration, yet these relationships remain invaluable, proving that deep connections often reveal their true worth much later, and in unexpected ways. Building such a rich network of trusted individuals dramatically expands the web of possibilities that can lead to significant career boosts.
Embracing a “Think Different” Mindset for Innovation
If you’re constantly following the same thought patterns, it’s highly probable you’ll make similar choices, leading to predictable outcomes. To truly boost your career, Bobby Chiu advocates for the “Think Different” philosophy, famously championed by Apple. This isn’t just about being contrarian; it’s about actively challenging your default settings and seeking alternative approaches. Changing your thinking doesn’t automatically guarantee positive results, of course, but it creates the necessary conditions for dramatic and accelerated change. The key is to ensure these new thought processes steer you towards constructive and advantageous outcomes.
Consider Bobby’s personal anecdote from San Diego Comic-Con: instead of arriving late to a Disney Feature Animation party, as was his usual habit, he decided to arrive right on time. This seemingly small shift in behavior created a completely different experience. He encountered only four people inside, making it incredibly easy to strike up conversations and forge new relationships, including meeting Mark Smith, the Head of Story at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Imagine if he had stuck to his old habit; he would have walked into a packed room, making it significantly harder to engage with individuals who were already deeply engrossed in existing conversations. This scenario illustrates how intentionally disrupting routine thoughts and actions can lead to unexpected and invaluable opportunities. Moreover, consistently questioning the status quo and experimenting with new perspectives isn’t just about finding a better way; it’s about cultivating a dynamic personal growth engine that continuously propels your career forward.
Thinking Big: The Power of Ambitious Goals
The scope of your aspirations directly influences the trajectory of your career. Bobby Chiu’s third pivotal tip is to “think big,” emphasizing that modest goals often yield modest results. Initially, he merely sought “a job,” and that’s precisely what he got – a series of jobs rather than a defined career path. His true breakthrough came when he dared to envision a grander objective: becoming a lead character designer for films, specifically aiming to work with his favorite director, Tim Burton. This wasn’t just a vague wish; it was a vividly imagined, highly specific goal that recalibrated his entire decision-making process.
Such a monumental goal provides an internal compass, guiding every choice, every project, and every learning endeavor. For Bobby, this meant consciously choosing jobs that aligned, even subtly, with a Tim Burton-esque aesthetic, even if they offered less pay than other opportunities. These smaller, deliberate steps, each pointing towards his ultimate vision, eventually led him to work on Disney’s Alice in Wonderland—a project that, in his own words, was a dream he hadn’t even dared to conceive. Imagine if your daily tasks and choices were consistently filtered through the lens of your ultimate, audacious career dream. This consistent alignment ensures that you’re not just working, but actively building towards a future that might currently seem beyond your wildest dreams. It’s a testament to the fact that when you clarify your ultimate destination, every small action becomes a meaningful stride in that direction, powerfully boosting your career towards previously unimaginable heights.
Cultivating Self-Belief: Thinking Better of Yourself
One of the most insidious obstacles to career growth is often self-doubt. Bobby Chiu’s fourth crucial piece of advice is to “think better of yourself.” While a rare few might need to temper overconfidence, the vast majority of professionals, especially those in creative fields, tend to undervalue their own capabilities and potential. This self-limiting belief can prevent individuals from truly excelling and reaching their absolute best. Bobby openly admits to once being in this camp, content with any studio job, even “mopping floors or sharpening pencils.” However, his perspective evolved as he realized that how one perceives oneself directly impacts career opportunities and achievements.
At Imaginism Studios, Bobby actively fosters an environment where artists are encouraged to recognize their capacity for “rockstar levels” of achievement, identifying self-imposed limitations as the primary barrier. Changing your internal narrative from “I can’t” to “I have the potential to” is a powerful psychological shift. It’s not about fabricating an ego, but rather about acknowledging the immense, often untapped, potential within. Imagine if you genuinely believed in your capacity for growth and success, irrespective of your current standing. This reframing allows you to step into challenges with a growth mindset, viewing setbacks as learning opportunities rather than confirmations of inadequacy. Moreover, when you exude quiet confidence in your abilities and potential, it subtly influences how others perceive you, opening doors that might remain closed to someone plagued by self-doubt. This belief in your future self is a fundamental prerequisite for sustained career boosting, transforming aspirations into tangible realities.
The Relentless Pursuit of Betterment: Continuous Learning
The fifth and perhaps most potent piece of advice for career acceleration is elegantly simple: your career doesn’t improve until you improve. This concept, which Bobby Chiu now views as a “no-brainer,” was once a blind spot, as he admits to envying others’ opportunities without recognizing the effort behind them. The truth is, waiting for opportunities to land in your lap is a passive strategy that rarely yields substantial results. Instead, active preparation—honing your skills *before* the opportunity arises—is paramount. If you aspire to be a concept artist for a specific video game company, for instance, begin creating portfolio pieces that align with their style and titles, as if you were already on their team.
Should your current skill level not meet those demands, the solution is clear: actively identify and conquer your deficiencies one by one. While on-the-job learning is valuable, nothing accelerates skill acquisition quite like structured, active education—be it through classes, books, videos, workshops, or platforms like Schoolism. This continuous engagement with learning isn’t just about gaining new skills; it’s about realizing the infinite scope of knowledge yet to acquire, creating a “never-ending wonderful journey” of growth. Imagine the competitive edge gained by a professional who consistently schedules time for learning, differentiating themselves from the majority who become comfortable and allow their learning to slow. Bobby likens this acquisition of new skills to gaining “superpowers”; each new class, like his experience with Justin Goby Fields’ ZBrush class, levels you up, making you ready for a broader array of opportunities. This relentless dedication to self-improvement is the engine that perpetually propels your career forward, ensuring that new doors are constantly opening.
