It's funny how random memories pop into our heads, from time to time.
Earlier today — while I was driving into town to go to the printshop to make copies — I got to thinking about a former manager of mine, from my relatively brief stint in the Korporate IT industry.
Do you feel lucky?
This was someone I actually learned a lot from, and one of the lessons that has stuck with me had to do with the strange relationship between natural aptitude and a desire to do something.
It is evidently a fairly common philosophy that a person who wants to get ahead in life should do whatever it is they excel at or have natural aptitude for. Tom — aforesaid manager — always disputed that, insisting that you owed the nobody to pursue a particular (career) path no matter how good you might be... if it didn't appeal to you.
He used the example — which I could deeply relate to because it was also true for me — of how he was naturally "gifted" when it came to things like understanding and organizing number systems, and that he could have been an exceptional accountant and auditor... but he basically hated those fields and found them as dull and tedious as watching paint dry.
So he basically ignored everyone pushing him towards finance and accounting and found a lot of satisfaction and contentment in motivating people in a high level management position, somewhat removed from actual hands-on number crunching.
Before that, he had spent a lot of time as a motivational speaker, primarily in the marketing field... of which I had relatively little knowledge. However, he loved the banter and interaction. In time, he was offered the managerial position he held when I knew him.
He admitted that he was probably a lesser division manager than he could have been partner in an accounting firm... but he didn't really care.
It was a good lesson in both how we measure success and in staying true to ourselves.
I have a very fine education in Finance and Marketing from a top business school — with "High Honors," even — but I have never really been in a field that makes much use of that skill set... and I have very little desire to be. I also have a minor in English... and these days I "get mine" primarily as a book editor and writer... and even from writing blog posts for venues like Hive. Because I really enjoy doing that.
The closest that Finance degree gets to actual application is perhaps trying to understand how the crypto markets work!
Which brings me back to the fact that what we love and what we are good at aren't necessarily going to be the same thing... and we have to figure out what it is that is really important to us.
Now, you might wonder why I pursued the particular University degrees I did... and it mostly had to do with family pressures and expectations that were brought to bear before I had much of a voice of my own and well-developed sense of self. "It" was simply assumed that I would become a so-called "Captain of Industry" because I seemed to have a natural... "gift"... for that sort of area.
All these years later, I am actually glad I didn't go down that road... even though there were times it seemed like I would have been a shoo-in for a highly compensated and influential job.
Heck, I've never even had what you might call "a career!"
And there it is!
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Have you followed the path of what you are GOOD at, or what you LIKE doing? Or are the two the same for you? Do you feel like your work life has unfolded in the way you wanted/hoped for? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20211104 00:26 PDT
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