It Starts and Ends with You

We live in a world where massive international corporations can grow bigger than a country. Yet many yearn for the freedom and personal responsibility of running their own operation. Given the number of different places the average person will work, the lifetime commitment of company to employee is a thing of the past. 

Even if you never step out on your own, however, you will be making highly significant decisions about where you want to work and what you want to do. Accept personal responsibility for these decisions, and prepare yourself for the potential opportunities of the future.

“If you have the ability, believe in yourself, and can conceive it, then you have to have the determination to do it,” says Dr. Bernard Harris, a veteran of multiple space shuttle flights and over four million miles of space travel.

Harris grew up in Gallup, an isolated village in New Mexico. But his dreams were limitless when he saw the Apollo missions on television. Before becoming an astronaut, Dr. Harris went to medical school and joined the Air Force as a flight surgeon.

“Nobody from Gallup has an easy path paved to success. You have to make your own way. And I never let anyone tell me I couldn’t do something.”

He frequently shares stories of his life with schoolchildren. He tells them there is only one way he could get the chance to fly in space: “Your attitude determines your altitude.”

The ability to accept personal responsibility for work outcomes and to thrive under individual scrutiny improves your chances by 65 percent of successfully making the transition from working for a traditional large company to succeeding in a job at a small firm or as an independent consultant.