In today’s turbulent job market, with high unemployment and even greater uncertainty, it is more important than ever to take control of your own career. The days of signing on to one company and working through to retirement are mostly gone for the vast majority of today’s workers. The reality is that you will change jobs and positions often during your working life and you could change professions or occupations as well. Given this environment you must be the master of your own career, the captain of your own ship.
It is vital to become educated and trained on the latest techniques in your chosen profession. As Earle Nightingale, the late and renowned motivation speaker once said, “The top ten percent will always be employed.” While I have found this to be mostly true, I have also discovered, often painfully, that when a company decides to slash its workforce, it often looks first to those who are the highest-paid associates. It has been my experience, that in the labor force of the 21st century, your performance does not always equal job security.
True job security comes with having a skill or talent that can be easily transferred to other positions, or even your own position. If you have a unique ability or set of skills that very few other people can either accomplish or perform, you will be holding all the cards when the axe starts to swing. Being the best performer with those unique set of skills opens up a wide range of options for your career choices. Finding someone who is willing to pay for those skills becomes your challenge and then being recognized in your industry as simply the best, puts you in the driver’s seat and behind the wheel of your career.
Of course, the best way to be certain you will never be unemployed is to open your own boss and open your own business. This will give you the freedom to work with whom you want to, the freedom to produce what you want to produce and the freedom to either succeed or fail completely as a result of your own efforts. Having done this myself twice in my career, I can personally attest to the values that being the master of your own destiny brings. It is a terrific way to go through life. Understand the risks, the challenges, the rewards and the dangers, and if this is your choice, jump into it with everything you have.
What I have discovered, over the course of my 40 year career, is that you will always find work if you are the best-educated, best-prepared and most recognized performer in your field. Get the most advanced education and degree you can and then supplement that knowledge by learning more every day of your working life. Wake up every day thinking of ways to do your job better. Attend as many classes and seminars as you can that will make you better at what you like to do, and then put that knowledge to work in your field of interest. Never stop learning, take control of your own career and do not ever rely on someone else to plan your career or training for you. You alone know what you need to learn in order to succeed, you alone understand what you really want to do, you alone are the master of your own destiny. Take control of your ship and steer it where you alone want to go.
Your future is being made each and every day of your life. The choices you make today, tomorrow,next week and next month will affect your life next year and next decade. Your career is made up of the choices you make every day of your life. The winners in the game of life make the best choices and invest their dollars in themselves, whenever they can. No one else really understands what you really need and want. Only you have control over the steering wheel of your life. Only you know where you are headed. Make the crucial decision that your career is in your hands and your hands alone and you will soon discover that the road to success is not really all that crowded. You are now driving in the fast lane and the view is limitless because it is exactly what have chosen. That is the true power of grabbing control of your own career. Put the pedal to the metal and really enjoy the trip. It will be quite a rush.