How running shoes inspire a career path
Building a career in marketing and communications seems sort of straight forward. Just the same, the idea of finding the right path assumes that there is only one right path, and a myriad of wrong paths. However, I suspect that there are no wrong paths. That the only wrong choice is to not set out on your journey, to not take the risk of failure, the risk that you might find a way to become the best marketer, the best communicator, the best content creator.
Here's the lesson. When you choose to be brave and set out on your own journey, you will ultimately come back as the best storyteller.
Recently, as a Public Relations Institute of Australia -The University of Queensland of Queensland mentor, I was asked to provide some erudite advice to a young communication undergraduate. My task was to shine a light ahead of her so that she might see the path ahead.
However, instead of shining a light on her path ahead, I shone my torchlight on her ability to make her own path by recognising those things that could be her steppingstones.
While finding the path forward can have a Thatcherite perspective, that of defiant intractable forward momentum. Momentum that prevented a side trip to adventure, a moment of reflection, or a complete change of direction because you found another passion.
That old ideology insists that one start with the same determination and direction with which one intends on finishing is not my advice.
Sometimes you need to be open to change and are brave enough to weigh up the opportunity. If it shapes up to your needs, your values, and your passions, then do the thing I say is to “Nike” life’s opportunities. That means to “Just do it,” slip on your runners and bolt towards the opportunities, run along a new track, hurdle another obstacle, find a new personal best. Only stop when you need to help someone onto their feet, or to take time to recognise a new opportunity signposted at another crossroads.
Embrace each opportunity in the full knowledge that failure is a real possibility, every bit as real as the chance of success. And having decided that you are going to take what some might call the road less travelled, that road that reflected who you are and what you believe you want to be, that road that is somehow incomplete without you travelling on it, then all you can do is give that path all you have. Here, “all you have” means giving more to it than you might have thought you could. With each step discovering something more about yourself, how fast you can move, how far you can leap, how passionate you can be.
Accept that you will stumble, learn from them. Accept that there will be failure, learn from them. There is nothing gained from playing small. Life is unrewarding unless you balance tears with laughter, success with failure, compassion for others with self-centred determination. Take the time to share someone’s struggle as if it were your own.
In short, my advice to my young mentee, be brave enough to realise that an opportunity taken has the promise of being more rewarding then the heartbreaking regret of never trying.
The path less travelled
There’s a reason they say, “the road less travelled.” It’s because that road is full of adventure, opportunity, and unique experiences, so Nike them – just do it.
There’s a reason they say, “the road less travelled.” It’s because that road is full of adventure, opportunity, and unique experiences, so Nike them – just do it. And if you do it well enough – sometimes you find yourself paving your own road. The travel you do on that road – that’s what turns you into a storyteller. That’s a good thing because all marketing and communications is about being the best storyteller. And as for life – don’t we all love to sit at the campfire travelling with the storytellers?
