Okay, so what would you think if you were suddenly told that from this point forward, you had to allow a seventeen year old to choose your career path?
Good idea…? bad idea…?
That’s right… with no experience whatsoever, and consulting only a high school guidance counselor, family member, or friend… you agree to let this young man or woman decide what, if any, further education you’ll receive, and in which industry and occupation you’ll spend the rest of your working life.
Let me ask again…
Good idea…? bad idea…? Do I hear “that’s ridiculous… who on earth would agree to that?”
Well, it seems… just about everyone.
That’s pretty much what each of us is asked to do when we hit that precious age… make a career choice as to where we’re going to spend a good part of the next 45-55 years.
Of course, it had been leading up to that for some time… with well-meaning relatives asking what we were going to be when we grew up, all the while smiling and pinching our cheeks.
But the big day was the meeting at school with Mr. SoAnSo… it was time to “DECIDE”. Out came the book of careers and colleges, trades and trade schools. And advice… lots of advice.
“Well Steve, with these grades you really need to go to college, what do you think you’d like to do?”
With all due respect, I was a seventeen year old boy… the things that I really liked to do didn’t pay any money…!
So I got together with my friend Pat, and we decided we would both apply to Marquette University to their pre-med program. Yup, we were going to open a dental practice. I remember this made my family very proud, but they didn’t know our rationale.
You see, Pat and I had run the numbers and figured out (remember, we were seventeen) that any dentist worth their salt could make enough in one day a week, to golf the next four. And then we could take the weekend off.
Yes, that seemed like a very good plan at the time… a very good plan indeed.
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As I think back to “Decision Day”, it is apparent that there were three career paths that were conspicuously missing:
1) Self Employed
2) Small Business Owner
3) High School Guidance Counselor
Hmmm…
Anyway, lest I digress…, I ended up picking the first two.
Questions:
Looking back, what are three decisions that you would have made differently at some point in life… if you knew then, what you know now?
What is holding you back from making them now?
I look forward to speaking with you.
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