A Tip from My Experience for Succeeding in Your Career or Profession

If you are employed or pursuing a profession, there is one particular aspect you cannot overlook, especially if you want to grow in your career or want to sustain and succeed in your profession. An incident that happened in my life will show how important this aspect is. 

I was studying in the 9th grade. Though I was an average student in other subjects, I had always been winning appreciation from my class teacher, English teacher, and others for my English language skills. Thanks to these skills, I used to score high marks in English.

At the fag end of that academic year, the school announced that there would be an essay competition. A number of students including me gave our names for participating in the competition. The topic of the essay was "the cow and how the animal could be of use to humans." Since I had always been good at writing English contents, I was confident that I would win the first prize in the competition. 

On the day of the competition, I was confidence-personified and went to the school with my head and spirits high. All my co-students also believed that I would be the winner and they did not hesitate to share their belief with others also. 

All of us went into the hall where the competition was being held and were asked to be seated. We were handed over white sheets and pens for writing the essay. Everyone started writing. I also began writing. I wrote a few sentences about the animal and suddenly, I found that I did not have any points to write. I was trying to think but could not get any new ideas or points about the topic. What all I knew I had already written. In other words, I ran out of ideas.

I observed that all the other students were busy writing and I was the only one in the hall who remained idle because I did not have anything to write about. After the stipulated time of one hour, we were asked to hand over the papers to the supervisor. I was feeling ashamed within myself because while the papers of other students were filled up, the paper I submitted had only a few sentences on it. 

As expected, I did not win any prize, not even a consolation certificate. In fact, my teachers were shell-shocked and puzzled as to what happened to me. But I realized that my sense of arrogance had blinded me to realities. I accepted the result as a fait accompli and of course, with a dose of shame. At the same time, this incident opened my eyes. 

I knew that there was no need for me to invent a solution for my problem because the moral of the whole episode itself provided me with a solution. Amazingly, the moral of the story is as relevant today as it was when I was doing my schooling. What is it? 

Moral of the story

The moral is: However creative you are, and however good your language and communication skills are, you need to do your research and have a lot of information, and more particularly, those relevant to your job or profession with you. Otherwise, you will not be able to produce or come out with ideas.

This rule is applicable to all those who want to grow in their career and all the professionals who aim to sustain in their profession. In short, be ready to put in efforts for doing a good research and gathering all possible details about the topics relevant to your career or profession. Otherwise, you cannot impress your employers or your clients and sustain for a long time in your profession. 

The inference is that you have to read every good content you come across or lay hands on. Reading and reading alone will enrich your knowledge. This will help you use them liberally when you are trying to create ideas.

What else did I learn from this episode?

My failure to win a prize in the competition did a lot of good to me. Had I won the prize, it would have fed my narcissistic appetites. Thanks to my fall from grace, I realized that I should never allow myself to be affected by what is known as the Narcissistic and Arrogant disease or NA disease. Precisely put, I had become richer on the "wisdom" front. The lesson learned is true today also. The lesson is that if you are arrogant, you can never learn. 

Once I learned this lesson, I decided to develop my knowledge in a sustainable fashion. I also understood that in life, I would encounter bigger battles, and that I should be ready for them. This means that I should equip myself suitably for facing those battles squarely and surmounting them.

"How you dress for work is far less important than how you dress your thoughts. Wise men have always known this." - These are the wise words of a successful professional and nothing can be more useful to ambitious folks than this advice.