Good career advice after a sobering week: Have a Plan A, B, C and D

As we discussed Friday, last week was a tough one in the sportswriting biz, with Sports on Earth reportedly laying off most of its staff. If your Twitter feed was anything like mine, it was filled with good sportswriters letting everyone know they were looking for work.

Sports media is a rough, ever-changing business, and the effective end of a site where so many high-level sportswriters had apparently been flourishing was a sobering reminder that even those who seem to be thriving can never get too comfortable.

I found BlackSportsOnline founder Robert Littal’s response, a post headlined Layoffs, Firings & Sites Closing; What is the Future of Sports Blogging? a compelling one.

Littal gives a history of sports blogging through the lens of his own experience. It’s very long, but a great read, all the way to the conclusion, when Littal gets around to answering the titular question. At the risk of spoiling it for you, here it is (the first ellipsis is Littal’s, the second mine):

I think there won’t be much of a future unless…….

Well, I think Triple H said it best, you better adapt or perish and have a Plan B, C and D. People believe you just write a post and everything will just fall in your lap. It is so much more to it than that …

Don’t get buried in the Evolution or drown when the next flood comes.

We are in an era of rapid change, and as my former boss Richard Gingras, now the head of news and social products at Google, has said, don’t wait for that rate of change to slow down. In fact, it’s increasing.

It’s not enough to adapt today. We’re probably going to have to adapt again tomorrow.