Pay Attention to Which Career Doors are Opening and Closing

So much of the career/money/business advice out there focuses on unwavering persistence and determination in the face of seemingly impossible odds. However, if you always seem to be swimming upstream when it comes to goals on one particular career path, maybe it is time to reexamine your priorities and your likelihood for success.

Last weekend I had a very relaxing getaway in Dallas’s friendly neighbor to the south, Austin, where my main purpose was to visit a couple of very close friends of mine. I was asking one of my friends about her current career interest (which she pursues very adamantly), because it is so completely different from the field in which she initially studied and worked. She told me that, in a heart-to-heart with her dad a few years ago, he advised her to pay close attention to not only the doors that seem to open easily, but also the ones that always seem to close. No matter how hard she tried, she never seemed to get anywhere with her first vocational choice.

This situation would seem unfortunate, but it actually made her reexamine her talents and interests (in addition to a number of other areas of her life), and ultimately led her to her current career, which she loves and excels in. I learned a lot from speaking with her last weekend. Most importantly, I realized that, while hard work, determination, and a drive for success are very important virtues, so are self-knowledge, humility, and having realistic aspirations.

When you are young and career-minded it can be so easy to get stuck in a one-track mind and not pay attention to the clues that life is subtly (or not so subtly) sending your way. Have you had a wake-up call that made you reexamine your career choices? Or do you think it is more important to pick a dream, go after it full-throttle, do-or-die?