When I graduated, my mentor, friend, and confidante gave me a book by Dr. Seuss, “Oh! The Places You’ll Go!”

Let’s make it clear that it was my university graduation and not elementary school graduation, but he had given me a picture book.

Why did he give me that particular book you ask?

Because he has always been my greatest cheerleader, and I learned this life motto from him: “The worse that can happen is they say no.” This has fuelled my persistence and determination in pursuing my career and life goals, and so far, I would say I am headed in the right direction.

After we are thrown into the real world, we all have to adjust to the fact that in our careers and in our personal lives, there is no absolute right or wrong answer.

There is no formula that guarantees you get a promotion in 2 years.

Whether you choose to continue working in your hometown or move out to the big city is also up to you — what’s your preference?

Choosing which profession to pursue and whether you want to change industries, is also subjectively up to YOU.

This is why your personality is so important when it comes to determining where, and how far, you go.

I have always wondered if my path would have turned out differently if my personality were different. Here’s what my friends would say about me: honest, hotheaded, impulsive, altruistic, confident, and determined.

How would someone more pragmatic, calm, and less impulsive react to the same fortunes I had been presented with? It’s fascinating to me how different people would make drastically different decisions when faced with the same situation.

Here are a few turning points in my career:

1. When I graduated, I had a stack of papers, more aptly referred to as a “business plan”. My teammates went on to pursue steady careers in paying jobs, I went the opposite way and spent a year pitching for money in 2008 (yes it was the recession), 6 months trying to open a bank account for my online currency exchange (back then no one trusted online currency platforms), and 3 years signing up small businesses to generate recurring cross-currency transaction volume for my platform. 

2. I then decided to try my luck in fashion, because I had always been drawn to the industry and I just wanted to know the intricacies first hand. I knew at age 26 I didn’t want to slowly start by being an unpaid intern, so I pitched sponsors and raised money to fund a fashion show at an art gallery.

3. One of my friends attended my show and saw the great turnout, and believed I could use my “marketing” skills to help his real estate company build a social media presence. I said YES, and became a Marketing Consultant.

4. I just happened to know how to read, write, and speak Chinese, so when the real estate boom resurfaced in the mid-2010s, I was in the right place at the right time and rode the wave to build my marketing agency to what it is today.

What would you have done if you had been asked to start a business as a fresh grad? With nothing but a stack of papers (ahem, projections)?

Would you make a career switch with no experience to another industry in your mid/late twenties?

Would you have said yes to a random opportunity to shift gears into a new industry?

At each of these junctures, I could have chosen differently. I could have taken a Market Researcher position with a great firm I really liked when I graduated, or I could have gone into finance after my online currency platform business, or I could’ve chosen to stay small as a solo consultant and not grow my marketing consultancy business.

There is no right or wrong answer, but I wonder, if my personality wasn’t so opportunistic and impulsive, how my path would have turned out differently.

I encourage you to reflect on the inflection points of your career and see what insights you can reveal about yourself and your decision-making tendencies. Would you have done anything differently? Can you pinpoint specific characteristics that would hinder your future potential?

I’ve written other pieces on how it is important to know yourself and what you want because then the path becomes clear. Take the time to do this exercise and understand your decision-making process for key decisions in your life and you will undoubtedly see a smoother road ahead.