Choosing a Career Path: Start Small and Grow Big to Achieve Great Things

“I am certainly sure that you are capable, hardworking, responsible and thus able to sail through your examination.  I wish you all success and hope that you will follow the footsteps of your father in setting-up a good example for the other young ones to emulate. For now, I am sure that you are well prepared and handling or ready to approach your final examination with an open mind.

It is through education that one can hope of having a bright future…”

I reminiscence, these words from my father back then when I was just about to seat for my exams. Then, I had great dreams for about my future. Great prospects. I can say.

My parents believed that if you are hardworking, then all the doors of opportunity will be opened to you. However, this is different if you are not.

The excerpt from his letter to me simply meant that, every society creates certain expectations for its children, and this affects the kinds of educational opportunities and careers they aspire towards. Crucially, study after study has shown that these ambitions really matter. What a child believes about their capabilities has a strong bearing on what they will achieve.

Linda Citroen, a reputation management and personal branding expert, on the other hand says, “Our career rewards us for the milestones and successes we achieve against the goals set for us, often by corporations and others ahead of us on the corporate ladder.”

But, she views the society as key players to the general growth for their children. She speaks of parents inculcating values, values-driven by behavior that ensures young people armor against peer pressure and corporate stresses that drag down their career and sense of identity.

She adds that parents need to watch keenly at the narratives they prescribe to the children. “Instead of focusing on the negative or sending sub-text about their shortcomings and inadequacies, we can find opportunity to highlight their uniqueness and call attention to their individual strengths.”

Above all, choosing a career path one needs to have the self-awareness of what skills, values, interests they have first. Then, look out for the opportunities that align with their coping capabilities then, they will be able to make a sound decision and action in venturing out into the world as prospective employees or entrepreneurs.

In life, we plan and think ahead to achieve some level of success in whatever we pursue. But why do some of us give up on the way while few go all the way despite the many challenges they will face? It is not time to give up yet, but to be inspired by Komla Dumor, one of the Best BBC Broadcast Journalist role model for journalists worldwide, died at the age of 41 before his demise, he said one needs to look at self for inspiration and go for it.

On life lessons, he says:

Before you go global you need to start local. Be small and grow big and achieve great things.

What standards do you set for yourself? There is one standard and that is a global standard. If you set the bar low for yourself you will achieve things that are low and if you set the bar high, you will achieve great things

Therefore, set a standard that you want to achieve, set a high standard and cross that bar.

You need to have a target, a plan and a clear and defined time frame to achieve your goals.

Being local and thinking global means starting your goals from where you are based but on a broader scale.