A Fresh Look at Career and Success

Its time to dust off the resume. Not because of a job search, but rather to gain a new perspective on your career and how it lines up with “success.”

If you were to take your resume and truly list the successes and failures without all of the hype, what would it look like? Try it. Take out a piece of paper and make three columns. List the jobs you have held in column one. Next list the major initiatives in column two that you tried to accomplish while in that role. Finally, list either the word success, failure or mixed in the third column.

Let me show you an example of Winston Churchill’s executive career (partial list). It might just give you new insight on your own leadership career.

Do you see the strings of failure in the midst of success? If you were gut honest and laid your career out like this, what would it say?

Here is what Churchill said as he looked back over his career and his many failures and his success:

“Success is going from failure to failure without loss of confidence.”

Fresh perspective is the ability to look holistically over a person’s life without getting absorbed in the minutia of a 2-3 year portion of a career. Think bigger, friends. Stretch your perspective to look at the larger mural of your life as it plays out in this world. It will bring much relief to the moments of insecurity and gloom.

Guard your confidence on the road through failure.

Posted on April 30, 2009 in Historical Leaders