Monday 23 February 2009

Career choice

The choices you make have a greater influence on your career than anything else. In other words, choice is the single most important factor in individual career success.

[Career choice won't get you everything but it can get you more than started!]

Last night was Oscar night and plenty of journalists & bloggers know that writing about the Oscars (and filling your article with all the names of the big winners & losers) can win plenty of new readers. Despite the risk of being labelled a shameless bandwagon jumper, I had to include one very small sentence that brings home the power and influence our choices can wield.

In his Oscar acceptance speech, A.R. Rahman said, "All my life I've had a choice of hate or love. I've always chosen love and I'm here." (Here is the link to his speech in full: http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/oscars/env-best-worst-oscars-2009-pg,0,6012367.photogallery?index=26).

This very short, simple sentence hides the huge effort (hours of learning, dedication, sacrifice, overcoming hardship, fine tuning expertise, etc.) behind his career to date. It also obscures the number and the complexity of choices and decisions that shape a career and get it to something like the very pinnacle of success (i.e. last night's awards).

What this sentence does not hide however is the importance of choice. Every time a choice is presented, we can choose how to go forward.

Mr Rahman will have no doubt chosen to study, he will have chosen to dedicate himself to his art, he will have chosen to stay the course even when the outlook was uncertain and he will have chosen against short-term gains where there was harm in the longer-term.

Career choice is never as simple as love vs. hate but it is made a great deal simpler when we know that we do have a choice and that our choices - large or small - are inescapably linked to our overall success.

Read more about the importance of choice in your career & personal success:


All the best for now!

Paul

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