Hey there. Orianna here from Fortune.

If you’re waiting for your boss to notice you and hand you a juicy promotion on a platter, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has some brutal advice: No one is swooping in to make your career happen.

The 57-year-old chief took to Instagram to share the “tough love” tip he’d give workers if he “wasn’t afraid to hurt their feelings.” And it’s an important reminder for Gen Z and young millennial workers who are starting out that the onus of your success is on your own shoulders—there’s no magical mentor, no benevolent boss.

“Have a thick skin,” Kempczinski said. “Remember, nobody cares about your career as much as you do.

“So this idea that there’s somebody out there who’s looking out for you, who’s going to make sure that you get that opportunity, who puts you in the right thing—great if it happens—but at the end of the day, nobody cares more about your career than you do.”

The Harvard Business School alumnus, who worked his way up the ranks at Boston Consulting Group, PepsiCo, and Kraft Foods, before joining the $215.7 billion fast food giant in 2015, wrapped up with a motivational message: If you want it, go get it.

“You’ve got to own it. You’ve got to make things happen for yourself.”

And as scary as that sounds, it reminded me of a powerful message Amazon CEO Andy Jassy once shared—and it completely reframes Kempczinski’s advice. Because yes, no one’s coming to rescue your career. But that also means no one gets to limit it, either.

“You have a chance to keep writing your own story and reinventing your own story,” Jassy wrote in a blog post last year.

“Don’t be afraid to try a lot of different things, and don’t let people tell you that whatever you’ve done—even if you’ve done it for a while—is what you must do. Write your own story.”

Once you realise you’re in control of your own career success, it can be liberating rather than terrifying: Ultimately, you’re steering the ship, and if you don’t like the direction it’s going in, you can change that.

—Orianna Rosa Royle
Success Associate Editor, Fortune

Got a career tip or dilemma? Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, TikTok, X, and Instagram.