Don’t Let Anyone Tell You What You Can — or Can’t — Do
“I’d love to be in the communications business,” Sarah, an accountant, told me. “But I’m an introvert. Plus, I’m boring. So I studied accounting in college. And though I’m doing something I’m good at, I hate my job.”
“Who beat this girl up?” I wondered. “Where did she get the idea that you have to be an extrovert and interesting to be successful at communications?”
Most of the successful writers I know are introverts. And some of the most popular public speakers I know (you know them too) are just plain boring when you sit down and talk to them.
I blame those stupid personality tests given by guidance counselors for Sarah’s self-imposed limitations. The idea that you will be happier and more successful if you know “who you are” is bunk. It’s just pure bunk.
You can become good at anything that appeals to you. It doesn’t matter what your “personality” is right now. That will change over time with the confidence you will get from learning and growing and acquiring skills.
Study the field you want to go into and figure out what it is that successful people in that field do. Break down each thing they do into its component parts, and practice each part till you get good at it. If you put in 1,000 hours of work (less if you have good coaching), you will be on your way to success in any career — even if the “experts” tell you that you have zero talent for it.
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