Welcome to Edition #104 of Gorick's newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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STORY
How Mark Carney became Prime Minister of Canada
If you’ve been following the news lately, you’ll know that Canada just elected a new Prime Minister, Mark Carney.
While he became Prime Minister for a whole host of reasons (which we won’t have time to go into), Carney first and foremost branded himself as a crisis manager. “If it’s not a crisis, you wouldn’t be seeing me,” Carney shared during his campaign. “I am most useful in a crisis.”
Crisis is the most apt way to describe Canadians’ outlook during the latest election. As we explored in our story on Justin Trudeau and the “rally ‘round the flag” effect, Canadians suddenly deprioritized their grievances toward domestic issues when they went to the ballot box. Instead, they focused on finding a leader who could defend their country against the existential crisis that was U.S. President Donald Trump.
Of course, anyone could have called themselves a crisis manager, but Carney was uniquely positioned to brand himself as one. After all, he did help keep two major economies afloat—first Canada’s economy during the 2008 financial crisis and then the U.K.’s economy during Brexit:
The 2008 financial crisis
- In October 2007, Carney became the Governor of the Bank of Canada. Then, 11 months later, in September 2008, Lehman Brothers—the 4th largest investment bank in the U.S. at the time—filed for bankruptcy, marking the height of the 2008 financial crisis.
- In the face of market meltdown, Carney cut interest rates early and took steps that led to a strong economic recovery. Carney’s work put the Bank of Canada on the map and made him highly desirable—so much so that he was poached for another job as the Governor of the Bank of England.
Brexit
- In July 2013, Mark Carney became Governor of the Bank of England. 3 years later, in June 2016, 51.9% of U.K. residents voted to leave the European Union—which became known as “Brexit.”
- In the face of crumbling market confidence in the U.K. economy, Carney again cut interest rates and kept the U.K. economy stable.
It wasn’t like Carney applied for these jobs because he predicted both crises. He had the perfect combination of skill, drive, and luck. And by being in the right place at the right time—not once but twice—he developed a reputation as a “two-time central banker and crisis fighter.”
Is all of this enough to get someone from banker to party leader to Prime Minister—and beat out the competition along the way? No. This, too, takes luck.
Take Carney’s opponent when he was running to become the leader of the Liberal Party. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, whom the media called the “possible heir apparent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau” as early as 2021, was Trudeau’s #2 in command.
But here’s the thing: when you’re #2 to someone as unpopular as Trudeau was when he stepped down, it’s hard to run for leadership and claim that you’d take the party in a different direction.
Now, take Carney’s second opponent when he was running to become Prime Minister. Pierre Poilievre, who had served as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada since 2022, had come into 2025 with a 20%+ lead over the Liberal Party.
But here’s the thing: when you’re leading what some called a “Maple MAGA” movement inspired by the U.S. President and your constituents sour on that same U.S. President, it’s hard to run for leadership and claim that you’re not part of the threat that voters are defending against.
What will happen next is still unclear. Carney will have only been in office for less than 2 weeks by the time this newsletter is released—and a lot can still happen! Regardless of what happens, Carney is now the 24th Prime Minister of Canada—and that’s much more than what his former political rivals can say for themselves.
What does this mean for your career?
The next time you find yourself wondering how to stand out, remember Mark Carney, who mastered the art of shaping his professional story—and how he used that story to get him where he wanted to go.
UNSPOKEN RULE
Shape your story.
Carney’s story no doubt reinforces the idea that career success = skill x drive x luck. It also shows that, even in the face of luck, there’s a skill to taking that luck and transforming it into something else. In Carney’s case, his skill—of many—was in crafting a compelling personal story.
This can be you, too!
Whenever you’ve made something happen twice (or something has happened to you twice), you have a chance to draw a line and connect those two dots together.
Carney managed two major economies through two consequential economic crises.
Have you…
- Led a project through to completion despite budget cuts?
- Crunched the numbers that led to a major decision?
- Helped launch a major project, product, service, or initiative?
Even if you haven’t, try completing this sentence with your own experiences:
“As I look back at my career so far, [this situation unfolded] and then I stood out by [doing these things]. In fact, this happened not once but [twice or more times]. This means that I can confidently say that I’m someone who can be trusted to [do these things well].”
If you’ve had at least a few years of experience under your belt, you’re guaranteed to have experienced a similar situation twice. Make a list—and start telling the story.
And even if you’re still early in your career and haven’t seen similar situations unfold twice, the fact that you’ve been alive for so many years means that you’ve at least seen events unfold once. Look out for that second occurrence—and be ready to shape it into your story.
Your story isn’t guaranteed to get you to your goals. After all, for every Carney are countless other Freelands and Poilievres. (And did you know that Mark Carney was on the varsity hockey team in college—but was only the backup to the backup? We don’t hear Carney talking much about his hockey days—and there’s probably a reason why.)
Shape your story!
See you Thursday for this week’s AMA,
—Gorick
What’s an “unspoken rule”? They’re the things that separate those who get ahead from those who stumble—and don’t know why. You can learn more about these rules in the workplace in my Wall Street Journal bestselling book called—you guessed it—The Unspoken Rules.
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Sources:
- Carney became the Governor of the Bank of Canada
- filed for bankruptcy
- took steps that led to a strong economic recovery
- 51.9% of U.K. residents voted to leave the European Union
- “two-time central banker and crisis fighter.”
- Mark Carney while Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-2013)
- Governor of the Bank of England (2023-2020)
- during his campaign for Prime Minister of Canada (2025)
- “possible heir apparent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau”
- Carney
- Freeland
- Poilievre
- 20%+ lead over the Liberal Party
- “Maple MAGA”
- The Canadian poll tracker showing Mark Carney’s sudden lead
- the 24th Prime Minister of Canada
