The Happy Engineer | Career Success for Engineering Leadership
Jun 30, 2026 · 1 hr · 13 segments
Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Fear doesn't go away. You just learn to turn the volume up on what matters more…
Waldo WaldmanGuestZach WhiteHostLet me take the next few minutes and just do my best to be your wingman for this conversation.
How will you take what Lieutenant Colonel Waldo Waldman shared with us and put it into practice and action in your career and in your life as an engineering leader? The first place that really matters really stood out to me in this conversation, and I want to come back to it and challenge you in this area, was how Waldo presented the idea of pain, discomfort, the struggle, the idea of facing resistance throughout your day.
I thought that was incredibly simple but powerful when Waldo drew that distinction to say, look, tell me about your day.
Tell me what you're doing that is causing you to feel uncomfortable, to feel that pain, to feel that challenge, that resistance, that thing that hurts.
And it really addresses what I call the difference between massive action and passive action in your life.
You know, massive action moves the needle towards that vector, that north star that matters for you.
It means stretching outside your comfort zone, taking real action that moves the needle toward the goal.
Passive action, on the other hand, if you haven't heard me talk about this before, are those things we do that feel like progress, but they don't actually move the needle.
And some of those activities are good in the sense that maybe we're learning, we're absorbing new ideas and information, but if we don't put them into practice, then nothing actually happens.
Listening to this podcast, for example, is a passive action if all you ever do is listen to the podcast.
If you're not taking real action in your own career and life with what you're hearing, then this podcast is doing you no good.
Well, this question of assessing pain in your day, I believe this is a really strong indicator of are you living a life of massive action or a life of passive action? Now, if you are simply sitting around watching Netflix, burning calories on the couch, then you are not in any question about whether or not you're taking the right kinds of actions.
You know, you're taking care of work, you're taking care of the family, you're taking care of your community, your church, your health, all these different domains that you have responsibilities for, and you feel full, you feel busy, you feel maybe even a bit burned out.
Well, how do you know if the things that you're doing are training you to reach that next level versus doing the same things over and over and over again that are not taking you anywhere.
And this question of where are you feeling the pain in your day is a really simple assessment to take.
Let me take the next few minutes and just do my best to be your wingman for this conversation.
How will you take what Lieutenant Colonel Waldo Waldman shared with us and put it into practice and action in your career and in your life as an engineering leader? The first place that really matters really stood out to me in this conversation, and I want to come back to it and challenge you in this area, was how Waldo presented the idea of pain, discomfort, the struggle, the idea of facing resistance throughout your day.
I thought that was incredibly simple but powerful when Waldo drew that distinction to say, look, tell me about your day.
Tell me what you're doing that is causing you to feel uncomfortable, to feel that pain, to feel that challenge, that resistance, that thing that hurts.
And it really addresses what I call the difference between massive action and passive action in your life.
You know, massive action moves the needle towards that vector, that north star that matters for you.
It means stretching outside your comfort zone, taking real action that moves the needle toward the goal.
Passive action, on the other hand, if you haven't heard me talk about this before, are those things we do that feel like progress, but they don't actually move the needle.
And some of those activities are good in the sense that maybe we're learning, we're absorbing new ideas and information, but if we don't put them into practice, then nothing actually happens.
Listening to this podcast, for example, is a passive action if all you ever do is listen to the podcast.
If you're not taking real action in your own career and life with what you're hearing, then this podcast is doing you no good.
Well, this question of assessing pain in your day, I believe this is a really strong indicator of are you living a life of massive action or a life of passive action? Now, if you are simply sitting around watching Netflix, burning calories on the couch, then you are not in any question about whether or not you're taking the right kinds of actions.
You know, you're taking care of work, you're taking care of the family, you're taking care of your community, your church, your health, all these different domains that you have responsibilities for, and you feel full, you feel busy, you feel maybe even a bit burned out.
Well, how do you know if the things that you're doing are training you to reach that next level versus doing the same things over and over and over again that are not taking you anywhere.
And this question of where are you feeling the pain in your day is a really simple assessment to take.
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