Forget job titles when you’re in your 20s—that was the best career advice Barack Obama gave his ex-speechwriter

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When Aneesh Raman was working as Barack Obama’s speechwriter there was one piece of career advice the former president would often share that stuck with the former CNN war correspondent: “Worry about what you want to do, not who you want to be.”

You only have to glance at Obama’s career to see his motto in action. The first African American president in U.S. history worked in community organizing and law for decades before being inaugurated in 2009.