How to Use Qualifications to Make Your Career Shine: Extra Edition 1/3 - Are You Afraid of Failure? A Recommendation to 'Not Take Yourself Too Seriously'
A series on careers. I will be adding three extra installments as an extra edition! I want to write three times about the mindset I believe is necessary to build a 'career that satisfies yourself,' not just about qualifications. For these three additional installments, I have added a quote at the beginning that symbolizes the article!
Success is not always guaranteed, but growth is always guaranteed.
When I look at the people around me, I often think, 'They really take themselves too seriously.' Sorry, I mean that in a somewhat negative sense. I think I wrote about this in the previous six installments, but honestly, I don't think I have much interest or obsession with my own social success or happiness.
What I value is 'whether it's fun' and 'whether the future looks like it will be fun.' I'm probably extreme, so it might be wrong to push that on others, but when I want to take on a challenge or jump into a new environment, I feel that the feelings of 'I don't want to fail' and 'I'm anxious about a future without guarantees' are a huge hindrance.
Once you have done as much research, analysis, and preparation as possible (doing these is very important), I think all that is needed is the courage to just 'go for it!' I would like to share what I always think about in the hope that it will be a hint for the mindset to make that 'go for it!' leap. Challenges are actually a lot of fun. I would be happy if that could be conveyed even a little.
VOL.1 Are You Afraid of Failure? A Recommendation to 'Not Take Yourself Too Seriously'
A column that thinks about careers through qualifications. Due to popular demand, we are delivering an extra three-part column that thinks about careers and ways of living. What is the change in perspective needed to keep taking on challenges?
Don't get lost in the voices of 'What will you do if you fail?'
In the previous series, I talked about the theme of 'How to make your career shine more through qualifications.' However, obtaining qualifications is just one example. Of course, qualifications are not the only way to get a wonderful career that you are satisfied with. ...So, I would like to deliver three extra installments that will be the essence of careers and life, regardless of qualifications. Since a certain point in my life, I have started to live a fairly aggressive life in terms of job changes, such as qualifications and changing jobs. It has been a life where I have often been worried by others, saying 'What will you do if you fail?' or 'It's a waste' as I repeatedly reset what I have built up and take on challenges. I have changed jobs 10 times. When I try to write it in the work history section of my resume, it doesn't fit, so I have to abbreviate it (laughs).
A grand experiment using myself as a sample throughout my life
I quit my company after 1 year and 3 months as a new graduate because I felt unwell, and from the moment I realized I had 'stepped off the correct track,' I decided to live as I pleased, no matter what anyone said. Since then, I have been honest with the voice in my heart and have taken on challenges without hesitation. Since then, I have thought of my life as an 'experiment.' What kind of results will be produced if I take on this kind of challenge? What will happen if I do something, will I fail, or will I succeed? What happens if I fail? I observe and analyze such things and enjoy them objectively. By the way, I even think that experiments are meaningless without failure because there is no learning or improvement. In a positive sense, I don't have much interest in my own success or happiness, and my motto is 'don't take yourself too seriously.' If you take yourself too seriously, it becomes difficult to take on challenges that might fail... However, I also know that this way of thinking is extreme.
Life is more interesting when there is failure
Marriage, childbirth, childcare... there are many milestones for women where they cannot continue working. There may be people who have serious reasons why they cannot fail, such as having children or supporting the household themselves. If so, I want you to take on as many challenges as you want while you are young and free. Of course, if your current environment is wonderful, I don't think you need to take on the challenge of changing jobs. However, if you want to change something and are dissatisfied with the present, but are afraid of failure and don't take on the challenge, I think that is a great waste. Honestly, failure will also become a great story for the future. The extreme poverty I experienced when I was studying for qualifications, the sense of tragedy during the exam period, the hard work, and the drop in income are all stories that people can laugh at now (laughs).
Will the era of continuing to do one job forever continue?
There are many benefits to taking on challenges, but if I were to name one, it is that you can learn to understand yourself and the world broadly and acquire the power to apply it anywhere. The experience and knowledge you gain will be useful in any job and will also be useful in understanding others. Working at one company, continuing to commute to one place, and belonging to one community forever. Won't that era change too? Before I became independent, I was not a full-time employee and lived by receiving compensation from multiple companies. There are people around me who, even in clerical jobs, work as freelancers, helping with work for multiple companies, having multiple sources of income, and earning a certain amount of money. After COVID, the way of working in Japan is gradually changing. I think it is important for surviving in the future from a realistic perspective to acquire the power to work flexibly and adaptably anywhere, rather than being a person who can only work in one place.
Miyuki Hara
Representative Director, Treble Co., Ltd. / Judicial Scrivener
After graduating from university, she found employment as a systems engineer. Wanting to acquire a professional skill, she aimed to obtain the difficult qualification of a judicial scrivener, which had a 2.8% pass rate (at the time). She attended a vocational school while working as a temp. She passed on her third attempt. After working as a judicial scrivener for 6 years, she joined a branding company as a secretary in 2014. She became independent in October 2022. Currently, she is engaged in branding businesses for small and medium-sized enterprises and spatial branding businesses using scents made with 100% natural fragrances. She has extensive experience in changing jobs and has experience in various industries and work styles. Every time she changed jobs, she continued to advance her career in terms of both job content and income. After becoming independent, she also resumed her judicial scrivener work as a side job. With the motto 'Do everything you want to do,' she continues to polish her career so that she can return her diverse experiences and skills to society to the maximum extent.
↑ This is the main part of this extra edition.
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