What I Wish I Knew Earlier in My IT Career: Part 3

Being able to do what you love every day while at work is a blessing everyone looks for and yet many never achieve. Luckily, I have had the pleasure of growing up with a hobby that turned into my career as an IT professional and entrepreneur building a successful IT consulting business (which recently joined EisnerAmper). What would now seem to have been a perfectly planned career roadmap was just a string of chances that fell into place over the years. It makes you wonder: If you had only known what you know today back when you started, how much further you would be? Looking back as a whole, the one thing I would recommend to anyone is to take more risks.

Fear often makes people stick with what they know. Sticking with what you know will hinder growth and make you complacent. When you are not willing to take a risk and put yourself into uncomfortable situations, you lose the opportunity to grow. You will tell yourself ‘maybe I will try that later, I need more experience, more money, more stability;’ there will always be something holding back growth -- inaction. The longer you wait, the more you’ll be hurt by this inaction – because, in fact, all we have here is time. Ask anyone later in life what their biggest regret was and one of the most common replies is inaction. Motivational expert Tony Robbins says, “Action is the most important key to any success.”

This is so important because when we put ourselves into uncomfortable situations and act, it fosters growth. This can be taken into many situations. Test that technology you do not have experience with yet, speak at an event or start a business. If I started over today and took this advice, from both a personal and professional level, I would be exponentially further along. If it does not work out, fail fast. Learn from it, adjust your approach or mindset, and push forward. Doing this in any industry is key and what I would consider an exponential growth hack in life and the advice I give many when coaching others.

For those just starting in the industry, I would urge those to take this to heart: Whether you hope to be a developer, help desk pro, IT administrator, system engineer, manager, CIO, owner, etc.: The time to reach your goal can be drastically reduced by simply taking action. As Nido R. Qubein, one of my favorite successful entrepreneurs, says, “Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.” Take some risks and act now.