Hello folks! 👋
Have you ever felt like you were working for/towards something, but in your heart felt that there was no future in it for you?
That’s how I felt after studying Law for 3 years at a relatively good UK university.
During A-Levels (I did Maths, Economics & History) I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at university. I knew I wasn’t good enough to do 3 years of Maths. I knew all the good Economics courses required you to be very good at Maths – which I wasn’t.
The only other options I considered was Law and History. I went with Law because Law was and is probably a bit more respected as a subject than History. Whenever you tell someone you studied law they always assume you are really smart.
The reality is – studying Law does not make you any smarter than someone who studied any other subject.
I found this out to my detriment during my first year. It was the most challenging thing I have ever attempted and I was damn near close to giving up.
Someone once said the jump from GCSE to A-Level is harder than the jump from A-Level to undergrad.
They lied.
I eventually adjusted to the workload. But by that time it was too late and I became so disillusioned that in my heart I probably knew that a career in Law was not for me – even if I did not admit it at the time.
So I graduated and I had no clue what to do. I applied to so many jobs that I lost count. I finally got an interview for some weird ‘Quantity Surveying’ role and here we are today. When I graduated I had no idea what a quantity surveyor was. I sort of fell into the industry that I am now trying to build a career in.
The moral or lesson for this post is this:
You may feel like you have no idea what you are going to do with your life. You may feel like you do not know what you enjoy or what your skills are.
To those that feel this way I say this – seize every opportunity and experience you can, it is only then that you realise your strengths and weaknesses.
I recommend reading So Good They Can’t Ignore You by Cal Newport. It helped me realise that it’s okay not to know your career path straight out of high school.
That’s all for now internet, any queries or thoughts please give me a shout! 👍
Interesting Links 📌
📚👂 Currently Reading/Listening: The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney CompanyGreat book which provides an insight into the life of Robert Iger CEO of Disney. There are interesting passages in here describing his dealings with Steve Jobs, the acquisition of Pixar, Marvel and rights to Star Wars!
🎥 Currently Watching: I’ve just discovered Ben Francis’ youtube channel (owner of Gymshark 🦈). He’s made a lot of business-orientated content which are really interesting. Here’s a good one for you to start off with:
🧠 Article of the week: How To Achieve Your 10-Year Plan In The Next 6 Months – A great article about time management. I always end up coming back to this article when I find myself feeling like I don’t have enough time to do things. It’s a real eye-opener. How much “free” time do you have?