Permissionless Apprentice
If you have the modern-day Ekalvya work ethic to open-source your career, you can learn any subject and become a "permissionless apprentice" with the leading experts in the domain of your choice.
Ever since I got introduced to the open-source philosophy (Stallman, FOSS et al) in my college days, even though I haven't done much coding, my career design has largely been a piece of open-source code.
I kept documenting my learning as honestly as I could, staying true to where I was, and opportunities showed up wherever my career had to go.
Much like a few stunts and experiments are not recommended at home, this advice is not for everybody - It requires an insane amount of trust towards the universe that it will show the right set of opportunities for you to choose and also highlight your limitations to embrace unconventional learning paths simultaneously.
Some time back, an old friend showed up from nowhere and told me that I was missing out on learning an important aspect of the work that I do. I took that advice as god sent advice and started working seriously towards that.
How do you become a permissionless apprentice?
Let's say you want to work with the world's leading authority on a particular subject. Or let's say you want to bring onboard an investor to your firm who can do wonders you can never think of.
You don't ask them if they can allow you to work with you or invest some time and energy with you. You assume by default that they are working with you and starting engaging with their work with as much seriousness as you can muster.
The point is not about impressing them. People often misunderstand this and think it is about flattering their egos. The point is about engaging with their body of work and showing them a mirror as honestly as you can.
Eklavya was probably the world's first permission-less apprentice. He wanted to learn archery from Dronacharya. When he was denied the opportunity, he built a statue of Drona and started practising. When Drona came to see his incredible prowess in archery, his foremost and pet student Arjuna became anxious.
To allay Arjuna's anxiety, he asked Eklavya to give his thumb as "guru dakshina"-fees for learning. Eklavya cut his thumb in a moment without thinking about it and further learned the art of archery without using his thumb.
The story goes further that he came to fight the battle of Mahabharata with his thumb-less archery skills.
In today's AI times, when humans are becoming anxious enough in comparison with machines, there is no other choice but to aspire to be Eklavaya and keep reinventing oneself, either with a thumb or without.