The Importance Of Running Your Own Race
When I was in high school, I ran track and x-country competitively. I would often look behind me in a race, to see how far ahead of the next competitor I was. My Dad use to say to me, “Amber, run your own race. Every time you look backwards, you are losing valuable time.” I’ve been applying this same advice in business and I’ve not looked back since.
When I graduated from high school, a significant percentage of people I grew up with, decided to get married. I knew that I was on a different journey, so I focused on running my own race. Many people stayed in the small town in Canada that I was from. I decided to take several risks and after I graduated from business school, I moved to California to pursue a career in management consulting. What I realized one year into the role, is that I didn’t feel challenged or fulfilled. I thought back to business school, where I felt challenged, motivated, and rewarded, and I asked myself why that was. What I realized was in my management consulting role, success was completely subjective. There was no definitive or quantifiable way to know if you were doing a good job. I would spend hours writing audit reports and no one would ever say to me, “Wow, that was a fantastic audit you did. Really thought provoking. And I really love the way you defined those internal business processes and controls.” In contrast, when I was in business school, or ran a track or x-country race, I knew exactly how well I had done. Similarly, in business school, our grades were posted online in a list by student number, so not only did I know how well I did personally, but I knew how I ranked amongst my peers, which spurred on my competitive nature. I use to go to my professors and say, “Thank you so much for the A, but what do I need to do to get an A+?” They would look at me kind of baffled and say, “Amber an A is great. Just relax.” But I would think to myself, “An A is fine, but it’s not the best possible grade I could get, and I want to achieve better for myself.” So I started thinking through what sort of career I could do where my results would be quantifiable. A career where being competitive is an asset. That’s how I landed on a career in technology sales.
Technology sales has been a rewarding and fulfilling career choice, though it isn’t the most common choice for young women starting out their careers. It’s a very male dominated field and I was often the only woman on a team of men. The more common career choice for young women in sales tends to be a career in pharmaceutical sales, but I wasn’t looking for the common choice. I was focused on running my own race.
Don’t be afraid to run your own race and pivot from what you think that you want to do in your career. It’s never too late to make a change. Ultimately, you need to find a job that you are passionate about, because when you do a job that you love, it doesn’t really feel like work.