Everyone experiences self-doubt. Don’t let that keep you from making a big, risky career decision, says ex-BET Networks CEO Debra Lee.
“Our difficulties don’t define us. Success and self-doubt aren’t mutually exclusive,” Lee, 69, recently told LinkedIn video series The Path. “I’ve had some challenges in my life … [And] I want people to know that you can have challenges and you can keep on going.”
Lee ran BET, also known as Black Entertainment Television, from 2005 to 2018, overseeing the launch of popular cable shows like “Being Mary Jane” and “The Real Husbands of Hollywood.” But she didn’t start her career in television — or anywhere near it.
After college at Brown University, Lee attended Harvard Law School, she said. She worked as an attorney — at Washington, D.C.-based law firm Steptoe & Johnson, according to her LinkedIn profile — before joining BET in 1986.
Her journey from law to television included multiple early-career crossroads — including some instances when she prioritized advice from people she trusted, and one major decision she made purely by trusting her gut.
Here’s how those experiences shaped the advice she gives younger people today, particularly when it comes to taking those big career leaps, she said.
Finding courage to take a risk
Lee spent a lot of her early career second-guessing herself and prioritizing other people’s desires above her own.
She worked to attend Ivy League universities and get a law degree because her father told her to, she said. She chose a federal clerkship over a role she wanted at the Securities and Exchange Commission — because the people around her advised it.
Eventually, she found herself at Steptoe & Johnson, where she took on the newly-started BET as a client.
Lee loved the cable network’s mission, and wanted to join its legal team. That would’ve meant leaving her comfortable job for a scrappy startup that had no guarantee of survival, which her colleagues — and her father — considered a huge mistake, she said.
Their hesitancy further fueled her sense of self-doubt, which had grown with each previous career decision, Lee added.
“The partners would say, ‘Oh, that’s not going to last.’ So for the first time in my life, I felt like I was getting off the fast track,” she said. “When I told my father I was leaving this beautiful, corporate law firm with wood paneling and chandeliers, he said, ‘Why would you do that?'”
This time, Lee decided to take the jump. Her self-doubt became an asset at BET, pushing her to work harder and think outside the box in her new role, she said. She spent 32 years at the company, working her way up from general counsel to CEO.
Overcoming self-doubt in your own career
Lee’s advice is often easier said than done — figuring out which risks are worth taking is hard. So is getting out of your own head along the way.
Some of the world’s most successful people have a strategy for that particular problem: Do enough research to understand the pros and cons of your options, and then, once you’re equipped with information, trust your intuition to make a decision.
“I start by being very analytical: ‘OK, we’re here. What happened for us to get here? And how do we get out of here?'” Peter Beck, CEO and founder of multi-billion dollar space company Rocket Lab, told CNBC Make It last year. “Sometimes, you can take big risks. Sometimes, you need to be very safe and methodical about how to back out of situations. Control the things you can control and acknowledge the things you can’t control.”
Separating the facts from your emotions can be especially challenging. If you aren’t a naturally analytical person, mindfulness exercises — from meditation or yoga to simply taking a walk by yourself — can help, says Joe Kudla, CEO and founder of $4 billion apparel company Vuori.
“They served me really well in just taking time to be still, sit with my thoughts and focus on that clarity,” Kudla told Make It last year. “When you do that, you’ll develop a more unbiased, objective sense of awareness … It’s really important that you find that time for quiet.”
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