Step 3 — Thrive in Your Career
Your career is the engine of both fulfillment and freedom.
In the Anti-preneur framework, your career isn’t something to escape; it’s something to master. Professionals often fall into two camps: those who burn out chasing someone else’s definition of success, and those who excel by aligning purpose with performance. This step is about the second path. To thrive in your career is to treat your work as the engine that powers both personal satisfaction and financial independence. It’s where skill, consistency, and character combine to create opportunity. You don’t need to work 80-hour weeks or “grind harder.” You need to work smarter, clearer, and more intentionally. That’s where Matt’s Manifesto comes in, with five timeless principles for leading and succeeding without falling into hustle culture.
Excellence at work creates opportunity everywhere else.
— Dr. Matt Markel
The Anti-preneur Career Manifesto
When Matt looked back over his career — from entry-level engineer to CEO — he realized there were five simple habits that guided every major breakthrough. He hadn’t written them down at the time; they were instincts that became disciplines. Today, he calls them Matt’s Manifesto, a foundation any professional can build upon.
1. Make the Most of Every Day
Success isn’t built in leaps; it’s built in layers.
Each day is a chance to make progress, learn something new, or help someone else do the same.
Anti-preneurs understand that small wins compound just like financial interest.
The goal isn’t perfection; it’s momentum. The more days you maximize, the faster your opportunities multiply.
Ask yourself each evening: Did I move one step forward today?
Progress, not pace, defines excellence.
2. Always Be Learning
Curiosity is the competitive advantage no one can copy.
In a fast-moving world, expertise becomes outdated quickly, but learners never are.
Every Anti-preneur invests in growth: reading, listening, experimenting, and asking better questions.
This mindset turns every meeting, challenge, and project into a classroom.
Always be learning isn’t about collecting certificates; it’s about developing range, the ability to adapt, connect, and solve problems from multiple angles.
Growth compounds faster than knowledge.
3. Take Advantage of Big Opportunities
Every professional career includes a handful of moments that can change everything, a new role, a relocation, a chance to lead a team, or a bold idea others overlook.
Anti-preneurs recognize those moments not by certainty, but by potential.
They act even when outcomes aren’t guaranteed.
Big opportunities often look inconvenient: they come with risk, relocation, or hard decisions.
But as Dr. Matt teaches, comfort never compounds.
Courage is the currency of progress.
4. Always Exceed Expectations
Doing what’s expected makes you reliable.
Doing more than expected makes you indispensable.
Exceeding expectations doesn’t mean overworking, it means over-delivering on quality, ownership, and communication.
It’s the quiet professionalism that earns trust, influence, and promotion.
At its core, this principle is about integrity, following through when no one’s watching, and delivering excellence because that’s who you are, not because someone’s keeping score.
Don’t just complete the task — complete the trust.
— Dr. Matt Markel
5. Never Pass Up the Opportunity to Be Kind
At the end of the day, we’re all people, teammates, colleagues, and neighbors trying to do our best with the time and talents we’ve been given. Whether you view that through faith or simple humanity, the truth remains: we’re built to lift one another up. Kindness isn’t just about being nice; it’s about recognizing shared purpose. When we help others succeed, we strengthen the systems, teams, and communities we’re part of. The Anti-preneur believes real success doesn’t come from standing above others, but from walking alongside them. Be generous with encouragement. Patient when others stumble. Support those who need a hand, not because it benefits you, but because it makes the world better for everyone.
Crafting Your Own Manifesto
These five principles are a starting point, not a script. Every professional can — and should — create their own version of a Career Manifesto: a set of guiding statements that define how you want to work, lead, and grow. A manifesto isn’t a goal list; it’s a compass. It reminds you what to do when pressure mounts or priorities blur.
To create yours:
Reflect on what drives you. What values or moments define your best work?
Identify your core principles. Choose 4–6 rules you can actually live by, not just aspire to.
Write them down. Keep them visible — on your desk, phone, or journal.
Revisit them quarterly. As you evolve, your principles will too.
You can start with Matt’s Manifesto and adapt it, or design one entirely your own. What matters is that it’s authentic — something you believe in enough to live by.
From Manifesto to Mastery
Once your principles are clear, use them as your personal operating system.
Run every career decision through this filter:
Does this opportunity align with my values?
Will it help me grow, learn, or lead?
Am I acting from clarity or from fear?
That simple check-in builds a habit of integrity and self-awareness. It turns daily work into deliberate practice.
And as you practice, you’ll start to notice something subtle but powerful: people respond differently.
Colleagues trust you. Leaders notice you. Opportunities appear faster because consistency builds visibility.
That’s what thriving looks like: steady, confident progress powered by purpose.
Why Career and Finance Must Balance
Most people are taught to separate their professional life from their financial life, to think of career as purpose and money as something that happens “in the background.”
But that split is precisely what keeps so many professionals stressed, stuck, or uncertain about their future.
The Anti-preneur philosophy rejects the idea that you must choose.
Your career and your finances are not competing priorities. They are partners.
Your career gives you identity, mastery, influence, and the chance to make a meaningful impact.
Your finances give you security, flexibility, and the freedom to choose where you work, how you work, and why you work.
When one grows without the other, imbalance follows:
Chase wealth alone, and you lose your sense of meaning.
Chase purpose alone, and you lose your sense of freedom
But when you grow both, you become unstoppable.
Anti-preneurs understand this truth:
A fulfilling career creates the fuel for financial independence, and disciplined financial independence protects the career you’ve worked so hard to build.
This integration is the heart of the Anti-preneur movement. It’s what separates us from traditional finance books and leadership advice. One teaches you how to make money. The other teaches you how to grow professionally.
Anti-preneur teaches you how to do both at the same time, sustainably, intentionally, and without burnout. This balance is the Anti-preneur advantage: fulfillment today, freedom tomorrow, and purpose that lasts.
Create Your Manifesto
Every Anti-preneur thrives by design, not default.
Your manifesto is the design, the blueprint for how you show up, grow, and lead.
Set aside time this week to draft yours. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just honest.
Revisit it regularly as your career evolves.
Next Step
Once you’ve mastered the mindset and principles that help you thrive at work, it’s time to expand your independence beyond your paycheck.
Step 4 will show you how to turn your income into autonomy.
About the KICKSTART™ Program
The Anti-preneur KICKSTART™ Program is Dr. Matt Markel’s six-month roadmap for professionals who want to build real wealth while thriving in their careers.
It’s a five-step system designed to help you gain clarity, measure progress, strengthen your career, achieve financial independence, and create habits that last.
Each step builds on the last, turning what you know into what you do.
Whether you’re defining success, tracking your finances, or growing as a leader, KICKSTART™ gives you the structure to keep moving forward.
