Degree Advantage

As a successful business professional, I am regularly asked for career advice. I have learned over the years that as unique individuals, there is no one right way to travel on your career path. I believe though that there are three common threads that will make or break a successful career no matter what field you choose.

Passion

The first key to being successful is to find something you can be passionate about. If you are doing something you love and care about, you will want to go to work each day and will do so with the right attitude. Your passion for what you do will be obvious and attract successful people in your field. There is little else worse as an adult than to get up in the morning dreading going to work. Your level of job success will be adversely affected with this attitude and successful individuals will avoid you.

Education

Once you discover your passion, find out about it all that you can. Not all education includes colleges and universities. Let’s face facts. Not everyone is cut out for college. Somewhere in recent times, it was decided that to become successful you had to go to college. This is not true. Trade schools, apprenticeships, on the job training, the military and instruction manuals are just a few ways to further educate yourself in your field. Some of these alternative means of education are more specific to your profession and often less expensive then colleges and universities.

Know Yourself

I am not referring to some New Age enlightenment. I am speaking about realizing your abilities and limitations and being truthful about them. One of the greatest mistakes we can make as professionals is to try to be something we are not. An example of this is a friend of mine who is a quite successful contractor. He runs several crews in a large city and needs to pay his workers. He also has taxes to pay and ledgers and profit and loss statements to complete. The problem is that he has little background in these areas. He accepted the fact that if he tried to do these tasks, they would most likely turn out wrong. Since this is the last thing he wanted, he hired an accountant who handles these areas so that he can concentrate on those areas he knows and is passionate about. He isn’t an accountant and did not try to be one. Knowing yourself will save you time and trouble in the long run. These are my suggestions. Good Luck.