Career Path Quotes

“Even though your time on the job is temporary, if you do a good enough job, your work there will last forever.”
― Idowu Koyenikan, Wealth for All: Living a Life of Success at the Edge of Your Ability

“We learn who we are only by living, and not before.”
― David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

“If you devote yourself only to yourself, if your heart strives, above all else, for fame, or money, or power or even happiness, I'm not saying you're a bad person. But you are making a bad choice.

Choose service instead. Not because the world needs you -- it probably doesn't. The world will be fine. And if it won't be fine, you alone can't fix it.

Choose service because there is nothing more insufferable than a talented, driven person who is also completely self-obsessed. Those people are awful. They spend their lives trying to fill a hole and digging it deeper instead. Anyone can be successful. Only service can make you realize how insignificant, and yet how meaningful, your time on earth really is.”
― David Litt, Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years

“You must be wise and stay focused on the goals you are trying to reach.”
― Germany Kent

“Importantly, nothing in this book is an advocacy for one type of career, industry, set of knowledge, or field of study. The practical methods in this book are not like a map with the journey and destination laid out, but like a set of tools, helping you to be a better architect of your professional life.”
― Evan Thomsen, Don’t Chase The Dream Job, Build It: The unconventional guide to inventing your career and getting any job you want

“We learn who we are only by living and not before.”
― David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

“Stop pushing people into web development as if it is the only true career path. Instead, push people into computer science, programming, coding, etc. There is so much competition because everyone is doing it, you just create a lot of demoralized and disgruntled people. There is more to programming than web development.”
― Olawale Daniel

“Journalism is all about headlines and deadlines. The adrenaline rush is real so if the news doesn't interest or invigorate you, this is probably not the profession for you.”
― Germany Kent

“Vanity and ambition as education. - So long as a man has not yet become an instrument of general human utility let him be plagued by ambition; if that goal has been attained, however, if he is working with the necessity of a machine for the good of all, then let him be visited by vanity; it will humanize him and make him more sociable, endurable and indulgent in small things, now that ambition (to render him useful) has finished roughhewing him.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“Soft skills are taken for granted — they are mostly intangible and not tangible technical stuff that you can pick up from a specific course or qualification. Paradoxically it’s also soft skills that are the most valuable and transferable.”
― Binod Shankar, Let's Get Real: 42 Tips for the Stuck Manager

“A 5-star career is part of a 5-star life; a 5-star life is not an outcome of a 5-star career.”
― Penelope Przekop, 5-Star Career

“You can build your business life where you are working with people you want to work with. Then it becomes a pleasure, and then you can do better.”
― Andy Morgan, The Muscle & Strength Pyramid - Training

“Scale the shifting tower of coin and what awaits may change from the breathtaking vista of your expectations into terrifying vertigo.”
― Stewart Stafford

“I'm not a jack of all trades. Nor do I want to be. ”
― Germany Kent

“No career counselor or internship will be able to help you with your career if you don't have an aim, purpose, and passion for what you want to do in life.”
― Germany Kent

“Before you accept a job research the company, salary, benefits and weigh that with the satisfaction of what you will be doing in that particular location compared to a position where you could stand to grow and learn the most.”
― Germany Kent

“In addition to curiosity and a passion for innovation, the most successful journalists are also knowledgeable, creative, flexible, and open-minded.”
― Germany Kent

“With a great passion, you can do so much with your little talent.”
― Utibe Samuel Mbom, The Event Usher’s Handbook

“To enjoy a long career, immerse yourself in many facets of your profession.”
― Germany Kent

“There is nothing called a career in the 21st century and today is all about the talent, skills, and abilities of an individual that gets paid not the paper, resume, or certificate.”
― Aiyaz Uddin

“Don't be afraid to be driven. Enjoy life to the maximum, striving for a career that permits you to be your authentic self.”
― Germany Kent

“Life is not a process. The life you have, right now, is the result of a process.”
― Penelope Przekop, 5-Star Career

“Whether you’re aware or not, your personal philosophy and mindset create a culture around you; think of it as a vibe.”
― Penelope Przekop, 5-Star Career

“There is objective and subjective data in your story. It’s possible to identify, compile, and process that data to gain insight on how you can apply the science of quality management to your career.”
― Penelope Przekop, 5-Star Career

“We can be motivated out the wazoo by gaining an understanding of all these power packed psychological truths yet somehow lack the basic engine needed to turn all that positive advice into the outcomes we desire. The science of quality management needs a seat at that table. Without it, a perplexing gap can be created when we set out to apply all that psychologically proven information to produce the specific type of life or career we want. Understanding how quality is defined, built, and managed was the missing link for me.”
― Penelope Przekop, 5-Star Career

“Whether you’re 22 or 52, you can avoid having a bum career by making corrections as early as possible. To do that, you’ll need a process to identify and/or to avoid missteps in the here and now.”
― Penelope Przekop, 5-Star Career

“Having spent so much time navigating my own career transition and counseling others through theirs, I have found that there are three key steps to identifying your own core personal projects. First, think back to what you loved to do when you were a child. How did you answer the question of what you wanted to be when you grew up? The specific answer you gave may have been off the mark, but the underlying impulse was not. If you wanted to be a fireman, what did a fireman mean to you? A good man who rescued people in distress? A daredevil? Or the simple pleasure of operating a truck? If you wanted to be a dancer, was it because you got to wear a costume, or because you craved applause, or was it the pure joy of twirling around at lightning speed? You may have known more about who you were then than you do now. Second, pay attention to the work you gravitate to. At my law firm I never once volunteered to take on an extra corporate legal assignment, but I did spend a lot of time doing pro bono work for a nonprofit women’s leadership organization. I also sat on several law firm committees dedicated to mentoring, training, and personal development for young lawyers in the firm. Now, as you can probably tell from this book, I am not the committee type. But the goals of those committees lit me up, so that’s what I did. Finally, pay attention to what you envy. Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth. You mostly envy those who have what you desire. I met my own envy after some of my former law school classmates got together and compared notes on alumni career tracks. They spoke with admiration and, yes, jealousy, of a classmate who argued regularly before the Supreme Court. At first I felt critical. More power to that classmate! I thought, congratulating myself on my magnanimity. Then I realized that my largesse came cheap, because I didn’t aspire to argue a case before the Supreme Court, or to any of the other accolades of lawyering. When I asked myself whom I did envy, the answer came back instantly. My college classmates who’d grown up to be writers or psychologists. Today I’m pursuing my own version of both those roles.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“It's the environment that rules, whether you like it or not.”
― Emma Toops, Wait, What?!: The Success Formula for When Life Plays Out Differently Than You Expected

“In every path we choose, there will be obstacles and uncertainties. But remember, it is during these moments of uncertainty that we are given the opportunity to truly grow. Embrace what lies ahead, for even if the road is foggy, your determination will light the way.”
― Loxley Browne, Attie's Amazing Adventures: Rocket City Love

“Success in business isn't guaranteed because you started big. It is guaranteed only if you know exactly what you have ventured into.”
― Utibe Samuel Mbom, Your Clients and You