The Importance of Resilience in Pursuing Your Career Path

As I near the end of my career in education, I’ve had a chance to look back and reflect on the path I took to becoming a Vice Principal. From where I sit now, it seems like I was always destined to be here, working as an administrator at KCI, applying the lessons I’ve learned and the principles I believe in to building the culture at this school.

But when I take into consideration the many setbacks, stumbles and outright failures over the course of my pursuit of a career in education, it starts to seem like a miracle that I ever made it here.

Even the first step to becoming a teacher — applying and being accepted to teacher’s college — was a hurdle to overcome. I wasn’t accepted the first time I applied. I remember thinking that this path maybe wasn’t for me, even though I’d been set on becoming a teacher for many years at that point. I started talking to friends about other possible career paths.

But my friends encouraged me to apply again. It took courage to start from scratch on the application process, but I did it, and this time, I was accepted. I was so relieved and excited, and mainly, I was proud of myself for not giving up at the first sign of defeat. I was following the path I’d chosen.

This was an early lesson in the crucial life skill of resilience. I’ve had many, many other lessons in resilience over the course of my life and career. In fact, virtually every step I’ve taken in education was preceded by a rejection or two. The first time I applied to be a department head, I was denied. But I tried again, and the second time, I was successful. When I decided I wanted to go into administration, I was turned away not once, not twice, but three times before I was accepted into the Vice Principal pool.

The big lesson here is, there is no such thing as a straight line to success. There’s a now-famous story of James Dyson, inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner and legendary inventor and engineer, who finally came up with the right model for his Cyclones after making and discarding a total of 5,127 prototypes. Every one of those, I’m sure, Mr. Dyson hoped and believed would be the one. But he was honest with himself about his failures a total of 5,126 times. That’s the kind of resilience that makes you a legend.

It’s important to accept that trial and failure is an unavoidable part of the process. Mr. Dyson and I share one thing at least — we learned from our setbacks. We were accountable, we owned them, and we never accepted defeat in what we knew was achievable.

The main reason I finally succeeded in becoming a Vice Principal was that I was open to criticism. I chose to receive honest feedback after each rejection, and I took it to heart and made a good-faith effort to improve on all of the suggestions. I maintained a positive mindset about my shortcomings and remained resolved to address them and fix them wherever I could. And in my case, that positive mindset was the difference.

So my advice to you, from the perspective of someone who’s near the end of a long career, is to be open to improving, to learning new skills and new insights about yourself, and to be proactive with implementing them. Do not let your bruised pride or your damaged ego be the obstacle to making the improvements you need to succeed in your chosen path. Accept that you will always need to learn more.