"The most successful people I know are good at plan B"-James Yorke(1941-)
Often times people get lulled into believing that their plan A has no chance of failure. Usually when it comes to a career, their plan A is their primary job in which they earn most of their income. Most people never consider the sudden loss of plan A and when it occurs they are surprised.
After being burned by the loss of plan A, I decided that I need to have a plan B, plan C, plan D, etc. This is why I even went back to industry I decided to never stop teaching. This is why I am currently working on several books, dabbling in investing, recently started a blog, and etc.
Long time ago before I left industry my employer went through a restructuring effort. I read an interesting statistic, "70% of people who leave a job on their own terms make more money. 70% of the ones that are let go make less" I spent time thinking about that quote and concluded that one needs to control their destiny instead of it being thrust upon them. Most people accept the change and after a few months of unemployment end up settling for the first job that comes along. They settle with the idea that something better will come along and they will change. Often times this results in being stuck for a while doing something that you have no passion for BUT need to do in order to make ends meet.
Today's question is:
"What are your plan B, C, D, ...?"
Shagon (past student)
ReplyDeleteActually this post interest me... I am rather some one who is more pessimistic so I always account for something going wrong with my plan A. So this is what I did... I decided to chase three careers that I am interested in at the same time. The first being computer science the next being electronics engineering... the last being electrical engineering. But you know what I notice with this plan chasing three careers slows me down Jack of three trades but master of none. As a result I can't get a job in either. Not enough experience in either.
My last IT tech interview the interviewer asked me. you seem to be more interested in electronics so why are you looking for an IT job? And I am like whats the difference between to two? Mentally of course. In many occasion I feel like dropping two and doing only one at a time. But then the fear that I would be uninterested in the two that I dropped after years of training in one.
I also have had problems focusing on one field. I have been asked by both industry and academia why I wanted to transition between them at different times. I never saw the difference between the two. In one I am working with a team of engineers to get from point A to B. In school it is a group of studens that I am trying to move from point A to point B.
ReplyDeleteI can see your troubles....