How do you choose your career?
You would simply say, as anyone else would say, that it would depend on your aptitude. Yes, that is correct! But then how do you know your aptitude?
It is the trickiest part of the entire philosophy of aptitude. It would not be easy to know your aptitude. It would not be easy for others to ’’spot’’ that great talent in you because many people simply concentrate on your weak points! And try to point them out as soon as possible. It is a general human nature and you can not help it.
Someone would say that it depends on his or her ambitions. As Goethe (pronounced as Gathe) had said you would not nurture ambition of doing something unless you really have an energy to do it. This means that you have enough energy and talent to do what you wish to do irrespective of your so called aptitude. It also means that you should persue your ambition or your target as the sole aim of your life.
I have observed many people who have ended up as emotional wrecks, ending up addicts of something or other after diligently following their path laid down by their ambition. Mostly these belonged to careers of film, modelling, advertisement, business, politics and competitive examinations like IAS etc.
Some one might very well say that one should follow one’s resources, practicality of achieving anything and most important family profession, business or work.
It may mean bus conductor’s son ending up as bus driver or conductor and peon or attendee’s son ending up as ’tea boy’ or ’light boy’ in a studio or in an IT filed. It may also mean doctors(physician) son ending up as another doctor with a red bulb on a sign board, military officers son joining as a junior commissioned officer, police inspectors son joining police force irrespective of his or her aptitude, interest or talent. So that is how we see bank employees children mostly spread over all types of banks public and private and beaurocrats children join central or state governments jobs, politician sons in deep politics and pick pocket’s children mostly as suit case lifters or only remaining as pick pockets !
Now we know as we see the ’’services’’ around us, that mostly it is family back ground which is influencing us. But with all the great achievers this is simply ’’NOT’’ true.
The great achievers generally termed as high achievers have an important quality in them. That quality is to know themselves as they grow. Their flexibility, their honesty and their refusal to budge or their refusal to buckle down under pressure.
Very recently I read an interview by an IPS officer of Maharastra cadre who worked in Bombay city. He refused to accept bribes (according to him assistant commissioner’s income through bribes would be nearly Rs.One lakh per month). But I think that even an Inspectors income would be nearly equal to that in a metro city.
I am not blaming the police because according to CBI report (annual) I read that electricity board is the super most corrupt and is the number one in that category and the police was not even the second one .
I want to come back to our high achievers mentality for the benefit of the reader.
The high achiever has some ’’shocking’’ features. Those are shocking to us and not to ’’him’’.
The high achiever knows it very well that one does not know what exactly suits one until he or she begins to work. The utopian ideology would be different from the actual conditions of work. In the same way an ambition being developed by seeing one’s own uncles, aunts or fantasies may give a direction and purpose all the while during trials and tribulations to reach the goal but finally one may learn the ladder which has been leaning on the ambition after all is leaning on a wrong wall!!!
At exactly at this juncture the high achiever takes the risk and jumps the ladder, prefers something else. You can observe any high achiever’s life it would be just the same. I am not talking about the business people and their ability to take the risk.
Now the ambition, setting targets, reaching the goes is over even if it means you became a physician or an officer in the government by passing a competitive all India level exams. It does not matter. If you have felt that it was not your career or you are now holding on to something which is not ’’your cup of tea’’ then you must be able to say a good bye to it.
I know that such a thing is mostly impossible to some and inconceivable to many. And some may say that I must be a foolish person to give such an advice.
I myself shifted through at least three different professions which are to a great extent differ with each other. You can say a sea change!
Now you would simply say that I must be a fickle minded person who does not know what I want. I am not. I can say that I am not because in each of the professions I took up with great interest I was successful and reached certain heights before finally I left them only because I began to realize that the ladder was leaning on a wrong wall. I began to realize that my hard work, my struggle was actually for a myth which I had created myself. Sooner or later I thought I would become only mechanical, and monotones and really nothing else without much of a scope to strike a path for myself. As you can expect I was vexed with working conditions like politics, nepotism, dishonest colleagues and intrigue.
Now looking back I realize I left behind my colleagues far behind from the point where I started.
Finally I would say that ambition and aptitude, these two most important ones are not going to decide whether you would really enjoy your profession. It is because you will not really know as to what exactly is your aptitude and also because these two are subject to change. It is also because your ambition as such may be based on wrong belief!!
Lord Buddha said that one of the prime reasons for your unhappiness in life (and thus becoming a wretched creature) is because of wrong belief and wrong action.
The right career is
1) You shall choose a career with a great scope for growth.
2) You should really enjoy doing the work
3) You should be mentally resilient, flexible enough to know the new avenues and careers and must be ready to jump in to explore the new shores and new opportunities.
4) Knowledge makes a lot of difference not only to your career; it is actually the secret of success of many successful people.
It means you should acquire knowledge, disseminate with full awareness that a right career really means growth in your career.
I wish you all best of luck.