Success Stuff

Brad Pitt’s son cannot be another Brad Pitt! Warren Buffet’s son cannot be another Warren Buffet! In fact one of his sons is a photographer and another is a musician.

“It’s dumb to let possessions rule you,” says Buffett, noting that his children won’t inherit any great wealth when he dies: “There’s no reason why future generations of little Buffetts should command society just because they came from the right womb. Where’s the justice in that?”

Where is the difference? It is the difference in their career paths. Each one of us has to choose our own career path. You have to start with your career path planning at a very early age.

Although every career path is different, each one has its own starting point. All you
have to do is to spot the right starting point of your career. You have to set your milestones and work upon proper strategies to cross those milestones in the stipulated time frame.

The right career path does not mean success all the way. Along the road you have traversed, you have to stop at each milestone and assess the good and the worse that you saw till the time you reached there. You have to work on your shortcomings and strengthen your good points. In order to begin your new journey towards your next milestone you may have to traverse back a few steps and begin in new direction to reach the next milestone quickly and in lesser time than the time stipulated initially while you drew up the plans.

One of the approaches adopted by people is that employees should follow the path set aside by their employers in order to build a career in the company. Such a passive approach cannot create leaders. In order to be a leader and take charge of your destiny, it is important to set your own goals. Remember, one employer cannot make you the “King of the Business”. You may have to switch to better opportunities in order to succeed. This means taking risks, adopting to newer environments at job and shifting places across the globe.

Have you ever seen a tall pine tree growing under a large banyan tree? No, there is always grass and small herbs. If you have to grow tall and strong, you have to choose your path on the hills and stand strong under the heat, cold, dust and face all the atrocities of nature.

So is the truth of your career life! You cannot be Warren Buffet if you have not taken risks. You should have your own ideologies and understanding of the field you are working on. Electricity was not invented overnight. It was an invention due to hard core efforts of Thomas Edison who had deeper understanding of the subject and he had the creativity to take the inventions of Luigi Galvani, Han Christian Orsted, Alessandro Volta and James Maxwell to the next generation of development. He gifted electricity to the world because he chose his own path and did not lead the path set by his predecessors.

You can begin with a collaborative relationship. It always helps. Whether you choose a finance career path, a management career path or a career in the field of science, collaborative relationships always help. If you report to a supervisor, you can always gain experience from him. Once you realize your potential you can begin on your own career development. For example, if you want to be a trader, you can start as an executive under an old trader. Once you realize your own flair and learn to understand the market, charts, projections, market growth and industry’s movement, you will be able to take your own risks. Your flair, your passion and your ability to understand the market will make you a successful or an unsuccessful trader. On the other hand, if you take risks only based on projections by other experts, you will be actually an investor or a small portfolio manager rather than an actual trader. So start with a collaborative relationship and then blossom into your own personality.

In order to bloom successfully out of a collaborative relationship, you need to have a small plan which will guide you towards a successful life. If you do not chalk out a plan as to how you will your career along with the rest of your life, you may end up frustrated either on the home front or on the career front or worse, both!!! It’s a nightmare! When you chase your goals, do keep other factors in mind as well and remember to include them in your plan. It will build stress and dissatisfaction inside. It may even take toll on your health as well!

Thus, it is not only important to choose a right career management path but the trick is to balance it with your overall lifestyle as well.

What does it take to have a successful career? What do you need to manage in order to manage your career successfully? Have you taken out time to learn about various career management resources that can help you in being successful? You have to take one positive step each moment and live with the inner strength to attain success.

In my series of blogs for career management I will discuss various aspects of career management development that first starts with self-assessments. Before you analyze the situation or any career, it is important to analyze yourself. You can begin with your own SWOT analysis and understand your strengths, weaknesses. You can learn about opportunities in front of you and understand the threats posing a difficult situation towards your goals.

Self-evaluation is the first process towards a successful career development and management. There are various career management consulting firms that will help you to evaluate your inner strength and help you to develop your flair into a successful career. But before you start spending hundreds of dollars on some kind of management guru, lets me tell you that you should do something called as Introspection.

This introspection includes assessing your values, interests, personality and talent. You have to understand your values in terms of aesthetics, theoretical, religious, social, political and economic standards. Every individual also has his own likes and dislikes. You need to understand your own. You have to understand whether you are meant for working as a service man or do you have a natural flair for business ventures. In order to select a successful career path, you need to have a deeper understanding of what you want.

Your choices are a reflection of your personality. If you love taking risks, may be you can be a commodity trader or a stock broker. However, if you understand the land and real estate better, you can work as a real estate broker. On the other hand, if you are natural science student, you can be anything from a mechanical engineer to a rocket scientist, a paramedic to a super specialty physician. The choice is yours. It is important to understand your flair and your personality to choose a successful career path. It is an important aspect of career management planning.

Self assessment is a continuous process in career management development as the situations and circumstance in life keep on changing. Even our personality changes as a result of incidences in our lives thus a continuous self-evaluation is always asked for.
You also have to deal with unusual situations at times at work and in your career.
When you know your strengths and weaknesses, you are able to deal with ad-hoc situations in life in the most efficient manner. You are even ready for unusual situations and at time can even anticipate them. This is the magic of self-assessments. When you are able to assess the threats in advance, it makes the path to a successful career quite easy. While others are left stranded in such situations, you are already ready to combat them and this makes you a leader. It makes you stand out in the crowd standing bright, shining and smiling.

Think about it! When you start doing a job, you are so busy doing it that you forget about your career. This means you definitely don’t have to manage your career either. When you want to accelerate your career without having to work harder, when you want to take up challenging roles and opportunities to suit your talent, you need to look into efficient techniques of career development and management.

You can look around for career management resources that help you plan your career and take a revised look on your achievements and accomplishments so far. These resources will infuse pro-active ideas and strategies that will accelerate your career to new heights.

In this competitive world, it’s a jungle out there! It’s the survival of the fittest. You cannot leave any stone unturned that leads to your success. Learn about career management and planning, read about common mistakes in career management, and get to know the tips and tricks of successful career management and development.
It is important as the world is always short of successful people. There is always room at the top!