Are you a walker? Do you carry a pedometer or have an app on your phone? In past conversations with my colleagues – the need to do 10,000 steps today and every day was a familiar topic. Steps equate to walking, exercise, healthy.
The following quote is attributable to Thomas Edison – “As an innovator, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. When a reporter asked, ‘How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.’ “
Now to our professional journey to our spot right now, how does it feel? Our pedometer for our career is a resume, hard copy or digital version. It tracks our steps only (certainly less than 10,000).
We identify the period of time at each organization. We track accomplishments and list them. We track our position titles and list them. We track our employers’ names or our own business identities. Through the years, we experience many results. We tend to keep the failures off of our LinkedIn Profile and resume. These failures may define us as much as our successes or more and certainly we learn from them.
We all take steps to move our career forward or enough to keep food on the table, mortgage paid, heat, A/C and provide for our family. In regards to our career, let’s not boil it down to success or failure but steps toward our individual destination. Thomas Edison knew his destination – light bulb. The steps didn’t matter – what matters is the destination. Add up all the company names, job titles, accomplishments, failures and colleagues that we met. It is not the number of steps that we list on our resume but the destination that we are pursuing. In our career we want as few steps as possible which equates to a healthy, better decisions, streamlined and successful career. This is not how it works generally and let’s not be discouraged by the number of steps. It is about the destination.
Continue strong in your journey to your destination.
“Rough path leads to the stars” (Apollo 1 Memorial. Kennedy Space Center).