A Hamburger Helper
Last week one of the college students that work at my son’s pizza shop said to me, “Buck, I have one more year to graduation and I have no idea what I am going to do with my life. Do you have any thoughts that will help”
I told her that I would think about it. I’ve been thinking and realize how times have changed since I had one year left in college. There was little question what I would be doing after college. There would be a period of military service during which thought could be given to the bigger picture. Military service was a period of challenge where basic decisions were made for me and I was able to personally experience how a well run organization met the needs of their operation.
The military is not the option of choice for most young folks today but there are plenty of helpful guidelines that have been freely offered by successful people through the years.
When I went to work in the private sector I decided that the people to observe were those who had achieved significant worthwhile levels of success.
Many years ago an important short lesson was provided to all of America by Ray Kroc the founder of MacDonalds. Kroc had a success story that was almost unbelievable. He changed the way America ate and became a billionaire along the way.
He was constantly asked by people what was the secret of his success. The questions were constant and I imagine somewhat annoying.
Kroc decided to answer the questions once and for all and share his thoughts with all of America. There were no Blogs in those days so he took a full page ad in every daily newspaper in America to share his thoughts on success. His message was that the most important element for success was not the degree you held, where you finished in your class or who your family knew that was important. These things could be useful but were not the keys to success. Kroc said that those keys to success were Dedication and Determination. I have observed through the decades I have been working that Kroc had it exactly right.
In just about every field of endeavor the common thread that is shared by the high achievers is absolute dedication to the task and determination to succeed. This does not just apply to business. It is in education, science, medicine and the myriad of other fields in which people seek to move society another step forward.
Thomas Edison learned the lesson of Dedication and Determination from his mother who understood these elements of success.
Edison had constant early failures in making his ideas work. His Mother told him “Thomas you must understand that inventors fail until they succeed. Each time you fail you are one time closer to success.” He remained dedicated, kept plugging and eventually gave us electric light, motion pictures, the phonograph, storage batteries and a long list of other inventions that helped society move to expanded opportunities for achievement.
How to spend a life must be answered by the seeker. Suggestions and examples are useful but choice of career must be ones own decision if happiness is part of a life plan
Find the activity about which you feel passionate, set short range and longer range goals and apply the keys of Dedication and Determination. Spend time studying those whose accomplishments you admire. I guarantee that you will find the double D formula at the heart of their success.
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Comments
For career advice, I like what Buckminster Fuller said:
“The things to do are: the things that need doing: that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. Then you will conceive your own way of doing that which needs to be done — that no one else has told you to do or how to do it. This will bring out the real you that often gets buried inside a character that has acquired a superficial array of behaviors induced or imposed by others on the individual.”
Some Hamburgers