One year, a group of outstanding graduates left Harvard University in the United States. Their intelligence, academic qualifications, and environmental conditions were more or less the same. Before leaving school, Harvard conducted a survey on their career planning. The results were as follows: 27% of them didn't know what kind of work they wanted to do; 60% had some idea of what they wanted to do but it was relatively vague; 10% clearly knew what kind of work they wanted to do in the next few years; 3% clearly knew what kind of work they most wanted to do for their entire life.
25 Years Later:
25 years later, Harvard again tracked and surveyed this group of students. The results were as follows: This 3%, during these 25 years, they worked tirelessly towards one direction, almost all becoming successful individuals across various sectors, among them were industry leaders and social elites; These 10%, their short-term goals were constantly being achieved, they became professionals in various fields, most living in the upper-middle class of society; These 60%, they lived and worked steadily, but had no special achievements, almost all living in the middle-lower levels of society; The remaining 27%, their lives had no purpose, they lived very unhappily, and often complained about others, society, and this "world that wouldn't give them opportunities."
Successful people are often those with long-term goals.
Dr. Edward Banfield from Harvard University discovered through his research on the driving force behind American social progress that successful people are often those with a long-term perspective. When making daily, weekly, or monthly activity plans, they use a long-term concept for consideration. They plan for five, ten, even twenty years into the future. Their allocation of resources or decision-making is based on their expected position in a few years. This research result has important implications for young professionals just entering society.
Career planning involves analyzing and measuring subjective and objective factors influencing personal career choices, determining personal struggle and career goals, and reasonably planning one's career path. Career planning requires you to consider your own "career interests, personality traits, ability tendencies, professional knowledge and skills," while also taking various external factors into account. After comprehensive consideration, you should position yourself in a place where you can best utilize your strengths, thereby maximizing self-actualization. A person whose career goal aligns with their life goal is happy, and career planning essentially seeks the optimal career path.
Case:
At a large job fair in Shenyang, Xiao He, a graduate of a prestigious university, applied for a mechanical engineer position at a Zhejiang-based car company. Although he studied mechanical engineering and excelled in all subjects during college, in the five to six years after graduation, he worked in sales and quality control for pharmaceuticals, air conditioners, motorcycles, and other products, changing jobs six or seven times without any experience in the mechanical field. After reviewing his situation, the recruiter believed that if he had consistently worked in the mechanical field after graduation, he would have been the ideal candidate for the company. However, due to his lack of relevant work experience, the company could not hire him.
Xiao He's example illustrates the harm that many college students bring upon themselves by blindly seeking employment. Without long-term planning, many young college graduates frequently switch jobs and reach their 30s without clear career positioning. In such a scenario, continuing down this path offers little prospect, and repositioning requires significant effort, leading to an awkward situation.
Long-term commitment is the accumulation of life's strength, requiring a long-term perspective. Taking sales as an example, the meaning of your sales career is that, under normal circumstances, you must be willing to invest three to five years or more to become a true sales expert. This long-term commitment will completely change your attitude towards training, daily work, customers, yourself, the community, and other jobs. Japan's insurance sales legend, Hara Ichiro, when he first started his business, sold no policies for the first seven months and had to sleep on park benches due to hunger.
Outstanding individuals generally have long-term plans for themselves and their lives. Having a long-term perspective on career planning is a critical condition for our future careers to reach the highest level. Success comes at a cost. You must work hard for several years before reaching your earning potential and enjoying the desired lifestyle. It is only after continuously striving for several years that truly valuable goals can be achieved. Regardless of which field you want to excel in, you need to invest at least five years in preparation. No matter which field you are in, if you want to stand out, you must mentally prepare to fully commit for at least three to five years. It takes a long time to develop sufficient professional skills to succeed in competitive markets. Otherwise, if we frequently change cities, industries, and specific jobs, the related knowledge, skills, work experience, and network relationships accumulated in our daily lives may all become useless, eventually resulting in situations like Xiao He's, where after graduating for many years, one hasn't truly found a suitable career or established unique competitive advantages, thus falling into an awkward situation where continuing in the current job offers little prospect, and repositioning requires significant effort.