Enjoy the Journey: How Wrong Roads Taken Lead To Success
In the 12 years since I graduated high school I’ve served 2 years as a LDS missionary in South Korea, helped start a non-profit for cancer patients, married an amazing woman, earned my bachelor’s degree, experienced the joys of bringing two rambunctious boys into this world as well as have seen success while being a top performer in both retail and B2B sales.
To say my life is anything less than blessed would be ungrateful. That said, have I been disheartened at times? Yes. Have I cried “woe is me” about some #firstworldproblems? Regrettably I have.
The Decision
Up until about 2 1/2 years ago my whole career path had been focused on becoming a physician; however, after successfully completing 2 strenuous years of medical schooling and lots of soul searching, I decided to seek an alternative career path by withdrawing from my medical program therein adding myself to the statistic of over 70% of college graduates who are not working in a career within their major. Do I regret my decision? No. Shortly after withdrawing I was fortunate to land my first post college job working in sales. Here I was privileged to learn from managers I believe offered me above industry average sales experience/training, which later led to other great career opportunities.
Have Perspective
Alexander Graham Bell is credited with saying “when one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” Perspective. Perspective. Perspective. Once I decided to alter my career path by foregoing my medical training I committed myself to only look forward instead of dwelling on the “what could’ve beens”. This mindset has helped me find a better life balance, which has greatly helped me achieve the level of success I have enjoyed so far in my admittedly young career.
Lesson Learned
Enjoying the journey isn’t always easy. Forks in the road are stressful as investing time and energy traveling one direction leading to a dead end is disheartening. Perspective truly is everything. One important lesson I have learned is to be grateful when coming to a fork in the road and wrongfully choosing a dead end path. Instead of becoming frustrated consider the perspective this has provided for now I can return to the fork and continue down the opposite path without wondering whether or not I’ve chosen correctly.
