Episode #242 – Fundamental Factors for Achieving Professional and Career Success
Julea: Welcome to “The Animal Health and Veterinary Employment Insider,” brought to you by The VET Recruiter. In this podcast, Animal Health executive recruiter and Veterinary recruiter, Stacy Pursell, of The VET Recruiter provides insight and practical advice for both employers and job seekers in the Animal Health and Veterinary industries. The VET Recruiter’s focus is to solve talent-centric problems for the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. In fact, The VET Recruiter’s mission is to help Animal Health and Veterinary companies hire top talent, while helping Animal Health and Veterinary professionals attain career-enhancing opportunities that increase their quality of life.
Today, we’ll be talking about fundamental factors for achieving professional and career success, with an emphasis, of course, on the Animal Health industry and Veterinary profession. Hello, Stacy, and thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: Hello, Julea. As always, I’m glad to be here with you.
Julea: Stacy, we’ve talked a lot about success on the podcast, and I know that it’s one of your favorite topics and something about which you’re passionate.
Stacy: Yes, that’s right. I am passionate about it, and that’s one of the reasons I became a recruiter, and quite frankly, one of the reasons that I started this podcast. I like to help people succeed in their professional life and their career. That can take the form of helping them find another job, or it might not. Regardless, though, I want to help those around me be more successful, and as we’ve discussed in recent episodes, a person’s mindset and how they think has a tremendous impact on what they do and how they do it.
Julea: Stacy, I get the feeling that we’ll be talking about the mental side of success again today. Is that right?
Stacy: Yes, it is! Specifically, we’ll be discussing the fundamental factors for achieving success, and those factors definitely apply to the mental side of the equation. The reason I’m emphasizing this so much is because you have to get this right. If you don’t get this wrong, then everything you do after this has less of a chance to be successful.
Julea: That makes sense. Where would you like to start Stacy?
Stacy: I’d like to start with a quote by American self-help author Napoleon Hill. We’ve drawn from the wisdom of Napoleon Hill in the past, and with good reason. One of his well-known works is Think and Grow Rich, which is one of the 10 best-selling self-help books of all time.
Napoleon Hill is known for many quotes, and the one that I’d like to introduce today is, “There is always a shortage of people who get the job done on time without excuses or grumbling.”
Julea: Wow, that’s a short quote, but definitely an impactful one.
Stacy: It is! There’s a lot to unpack in that one sentence. In fact, there are four things that I’d like to address.
The first thing is making the commitment to not only getting the job done, but also getting the job done on time with a high degree of quality. Doing that requires a person to make a commitment beforehand and also hold themselves accountable to that commitment during the process.
The second thing is getting a job done well and finishing it on time and doing so without making excuses. You would be surprised by how many people I’ve encountered during the recruiting and hiring process who have made excuses, for either something they’ve done or they haven’t done. I’ve especially witnessed a lot of questionable behavior by professionals and job candidates since the beginning of the year. In many instances, the candidates in question made an excuse for their behavior, sometimes blaming someone or something else for what happened.
Julea: Making excuses and blaming other people is definitely a bad habit.
Stacy: Yes, it is! In fact, I would go as far to say that if you make a habit of making excuses and blaming other people, then you’re not going to reach your full potential as a professional.
That’s because when you make excuses, you’re not taking full ownership of your career. Remember, the person who cares the most about your career is you. It’s not your boss or your co-workers. Since that’s the case, no one else is going to do what is necessary in order to grow your career. Whatever happens, good or bad, you have to take ownership for it and not blame other people or circumstances or what has happened.
The third thing I want to mention about this quote is grumbling, or to put it another way, complaining. Just like an employer does not want to hear its employees make excuses or blame other people, it also doesn’t want to hear its employees grumble or complain. And there are two aspects to this.
Julea: Which aspects are those?
Stacy: The first aspect is the grumbling or complaining, which is usually tied to a person’s work or a specific project involved with their work. Doing your work or completing a project on time is just one aspect of doing it. How you do it is another aspect, including your attitude while you are doing it.
If you successfully complete an assignment every time your boss asks you to do something, but you also complain and gripe about it, then you’re not helping yourself, even though you completed the assignment. Pretty soon, your boss is going to stop giving you assignments because they no longer want to hear you complain. They’re certainly not going to give you challenging assignments that will help to prove your worth and value to the organization. Employers want employees who cheerfully and willingly accept challenges. That’s how you stand out from your co-workers and position yourself for more growth and advancement.
The second aspect is a positive mental attitude. Instead of grumbling or complaining, especially about a work assignment, you should have this kind of attitude instead. Employers want to hire professionals who are have a positive mental attitude and frame of mind, and it starts with the interview process.
Julea: How is that?
Stacy: A positive attitude can help you during the interview. This is, after all, the first impression that the employer is getting of you outside of your resume. And even if the interview is a virtual interview or a video interview, a positive attitude is critical. In fact, it might be even more important in this kind of interview setting. That’s because when you’re not speaking with someone in person, it can be difficult to come across with enough energy. During the interview, you have to brand yourself as someone who has a positive attitude, and if possible, a lot of energy.
The right skills and the right experience are top factors when an organization is hiring to fill a position. However, the organization also wants to hire someone who is a good fit from a cultural standpoint, and a person’s attitude is part of what goes into the decision-making process.
Julea: Stacy, haven’t we also discussed previously that a positive attitude can be “contagious.”
Stacy: Yes, that’s right. And being positive definitely helps when it comes to tackling a task or doing a job. Not only that, but people are attracted to those who have a positive attitude. Positive people attract other people, and as a result, they’re more likely to be a leader or they’ll find it easier to be a leader.
Julea: That makes sense. People want to follow other people who have a positive attitude. It’s no fun to follow someone who is negative all the time.
Stacy: You’re right, it’s not!
The fourth thing that I’d like to address about this quote from Napoleon Hill is the ability to think for yourself. This can also entail multiple things, starting with the fact that you don’t ask your supervisor or manager a bunch of questions once they give you an assignment or project, if you can help it. Sure, it’s inevitable that you’re going to encounter problems and complications, but it’s not a good idea to run to your boss every time, if you can help it. Thinking through the problem yourself and coming up with solutions on your own is a better option.
Julea: This relates to problem solving, which is a form of value, correct?
Stacy: Yes, this is another aspect! Problem solving is a big form of value in the employment marketplace. Organizations place a priority on hiring professionals who have the ability to think for themselves and solve problems, including solving problems on their own without their supervisor or manager to help them. As we’ve stated before, there is no shortage of problems in the world, including in the professional realm. Because of that, companies and organizations will always be on the lookout to hire people who are proven problem solvers.
What else does Napoleon Hill have to say about these fundamental factors?
Stacy: Yes, according to Napoleon Hill, professionals should take initiative if they want to be more successful in their career. This means not waiting for other people to step forward to get the job done, but being willing to do it yourself. This can apply to a lot of different things in a person’s professional life, and it’s closely related to being proactive, which we’ve touched upon before. I am a big proponent of both taking initiative and being proactive, especially in regards to your career.
You probably know the saying, “Good things come to those who wait.”
Julea: Yes, I do know that saying.
Stacy: I’m not a fan of that saying. Don’t get me wrong, there’s something to be said for patience, which is a virtue and can be beneficial in many situations. However, you can’t take that saying to mean you should sit back and wait for good things to just come to you. That does not happen, no matter how talented or skilled you are. If you want something in life, including your professional life, then you have to go get it.
Yes, it’s true that when you’re proactive, sometimes you make mistakes and sometimes unfortunate things happen. But in many cases, taking initiative and being proactive makes things happen, and in many cases, it makes good things happen.
And as we wrap things up today, I want to mention that the things we’re discussing today are not hidden secrets.
Julea: What do you mean by that?
Stacy: I mean that anyone can practice these fundamentals to be more successful. These aren’t some hidden secrets that only a select group of people have access to. And to a certain degree, some of this information is almost common sense. At the very least, it’s not surprising. None of the material that I’ve presented today would be considered radical thinking. This is one of the reasons why we’re calling these things fundamental factors. And yes, they’re basic, and yes, they’re fundamental, but they’re apparently not easy to implement.
Julea: Because if they were easy to implement, then everyone would be doing them.
Stacy: That’s right, and obviously, not everyone is doing them. What’s required is a commitment. A person has to make a commitment that they’re going to do these things, and they’re going to do them on a consistent basis. These are things that you do on a daily basis all the time to be successful, not every once in a while. That’s because the fundamentals of success are all about commitment and consistency. That’s how you grow your career and maximize your potential. You make a commitment to doing the things that are necessary to be successful and then you do those things consistently
Julea: Stacy, we’re just about out of time for today. Do you have anything else that you’d like to add?
Stacy: Yes, I would like to encourage the members of our listening audience to read Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich. It’s true that the book was published in 1937, but it’s just as relevant today as it was more than 80 years ago. And Napoleon Hill wrote other books, as well, and I would recommend reading those, too.
Another big element of success is the willingness to continue learning throughout your career. Some people think the bulk of their learning is done early in their career, including with their formal education, but this is not the case. How much a person learns depends entirely on how much they want to learn and how much they’re willing to learn. If you want to be more successful, then you must want to learn about success and you must be willing to learn about how to be more successful.
Julea: Stacy, thank you for all of this great information. And for our listening audience, there’s more information on The VET Recruiter website. There is information about enjoying professional success and best practices for growing your career!
Stacy: Yes, that’s right. You can start with the fact that all of the episodes of this podcast are located on The VET Recruiter website. There are more than 200 episodes housed on the site, and a great many of them deal with the topic of success and how people can experience more professional success, both in their current job and possibly in another job with a potential new employer.
We also have a library of articles and blog posts for both candidates and employers. These articles deal with a wide range of topics, all of which are related to professional success, either through the growing of a person’s career, the hiring of top candidates, or both. In addition, we have recorded versions of webinars that I have conducted through the years, either by myself or with another person working within the Animal Health industry or Veterinary profession. I encourage our listeners to check out these resources on our website and certainly to reach out to us if they have any questions.
I also encourage our listeners to follow The VET Recruiter on the various social media channels. In addition to LinkedIn, The VET Recruiter is also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We share timely new stories, articles, and announcements on those channels, in addition to hot jobs and great new employment opportunities.
Julea: Once again, for more information about The VET Recruiter and the services that it provides to both Animal Health and Veterinary employers and professionals, we invite everyone listening to visit www.thevetrecruiter.com. Stacy, as always, thank you for joining us today.
Stacy: It’s been my pleasure, Julea, and I look forward to our next episode of the “Animal Health and Veterinary Employment Insider”!