A large part of the world’s population is not building businesses. People are building careers and aspire to work for large corporations where they can make it big for themselves too.
Entrepreneurship is a journey chosen by just a few, but the successful ones offer a platform for people to fulfil their aspirations by building a great career. For many people, success in their career is equal to success in life.
So what does it take to build a great career? Let’s examine this through the CARRY Framework. The framework’s foundation lies in your willingness to take responsibility and carry your career on your own shoulders. This is critical despite the fact that as an employee many things are not in your control. Therefore, Control The Controllable forms the crux of the CARRY philosophy.
So, let’s get into each of the elements in CARRY:
C: CARE for your career. If you don’t, who will?
Be passionate about growing yourself and thereby your career. As T Harv Eker says in his book ‘Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind’: “It’s simple arithmetic. Your income can grow only to the extent that you do.”
Thus, continuous self development is the key to career development. Before you own your career, you need to own yourself and your choices.
A: ATTITUDE – Everything is nothing without this.
The right Attitude forms the cornerstone of success. There are many aspects to possessing a great attitude – humility, being a learner, being a giver, openness to feedback, etc. But the one thing that can seep in without notice is Arrogance. With success comes confidence, but often arrogance too. The ability to stay balanced during both success and failure is a reflection of a great attitude and a certain level of maturity. After all, nothing in life is permanent.
R: RELATIONSHIPS – Who you are is also a reflection of the company you keep.
Team work and collaboration is not just a skill, it is an Attitude. It requires humility and a deeper understanding of how the world around us is constructed. Nobody can achieve anything all by themselves. An entire ecosystem is needed to keep our life running, right from the basic necessities of life to fulfilling our aspirations.
Fantastic careers are built upon the ability to work with and through people. Building great working relationships, and the ability to navigate through various personality types are skills that are built through experience, patience, temperament and maturity.
R: RESULT ORIENTATION – You don’t get paid for hard work; you only get paid for results.
This is where the contradiction of life is. Results are not in our control. Yet, you don’t get paid unless you produce results. Hard work does not guarantee results. But there are no results without hard work either.
Consistent results therefore require more than just desire. There needs to be a hunger to achieve, which helps push your boundaries, but that cannot be at the cost of ethics, morality and fairness. Results may play hide and seek with you, but you must stay hungry to get to where you want to be.
Y: YOUR DISCOVERY – What you become is more important than what you get.
Career development gets really exciting when it is weaved in with your inner development journey. It is a discovery of sorts. As you keep going in this journey, you discover more about your own strengths, weaknesses, areas of improvement, and your working style. The path makes you introspect at regular intervals, and connect you more deeply to YOU. Career development thus is an adventure in itself.
So remember to CARRY Your Career, as no one else can!
(Hariharan Iyer is a seasoned Motivational Speaker, Corporate Trainer and Author of multiple management books. His latest release is Off Stump – Life And Management Lessons From Cricket. He is the Founder-Creator of WisdomKeys Learning & Consulting - www.wisdomkeys.com. He is popularly referred to as The Enter-Trainer®. He can be reached on hariharan@thehsse.com).
