Do you think anyone can do any job if they work hard?

Could I work hard to be a pilot or an air steward …absolutley not, I'm so scared I would be very bad at it.

Panic stricken staff and passengers as I grip the seat or close my eyes and cry!

Could I work hard to be a nurse, doctor, paramedic, police officer, absolutely not, I would probably need lifting off the floor, fainting at the sight of blood!

No, I think you need aptitude.

In your example of retraining as a tax advisor, it's very difficult to learn new things as an adult if you find them boring. I think that's a difference between the child and adult brain - I can remember all kinds of stuff that I had to learn at school, that didn't interest me at all - e.g. the elements of the periodic table - but now, if I try to learn something that doesn't interest me - and even sometimes when it does interest me - it doesn't seem to 'stick' in the same way.

I'm quite a senior lawyer and I don't have what it takes to be a KC or judge! Although if I worked hard I'd certainly be a bit closer I suppose...

No. People have different talents. It's a good thing I'm not a doctor.

I have been a primary school teacher and I then retrained to become a microbiologist. I did both successfully but hated teaching so left. I couldn’t be a nurse/carer/doctor as I’m way too squeamish.

I could never be anything that involved using my art unless it was computer generated. I'm not bad at that, but I'd regard it as a triumph if I drew a tree and someone recognised it as such.
I also couldn't be an athlete. I've tried, I can play a reasonable game of tennis, but I'm just slow at running.
Nor a surgeon. I could manage the workload, but I'm not good with blood. Rather liable to faint with quantities of it, so that would kind of make it difficult.
I'd probably also make a rubbish cleaner. I can clean, but I find it boring, and I suspect that I'd miss stuff that needed to be done because I wasn't looking properly.

I could probably have been a lawyer, an accountant or an actuary, but didn't want to do more exams. (I'm quite good at exams, but had had enough of them by the time finals came)

When ds was at infants they did a lot of "you can be whoever/whatever you want if you work" for a while.
I pointed out that what ds wanted most of all was not to go to school, and he was putting in a lot of work to try and achieve his aim. He told me that when he grew up he'd dis-invent school (he's year 13 now and still has the same opinion of school). I suspect other parents said similar as it trailed off shortly after that.

I think some people's brains just aren't set up for some jobs. Even within my job where others in my team have similar skill sets, I find there's certain tasks that only I and 2 others can do, eg, working on a data sets and organising them. Others don't have the combination of concentration, imagination and critical thinking skills to do it. They're just baffled by them and make a hash of them.

No, hard work alone is not enough. I would be an extremely rubbish builder, joiner, plumber, seamstress. I just don't have motor skills/ways of seeing needed.
I was also a very bad salesperson when I tried it once. It's just not me.
I have my talents and I'm good at the job I actually do and that's ok with me.

In your example yes. Because doing taxes just requires knowledge. But I don't helieve anyone can do any job. I could not do a physically intensive job. I could not becone a surgeon. I could not be a astrophysicist. Why? Because I'm not strong or fit enough, I'm not clever enough fir the latter two.
I COULD be a teacher, an accountant or, say, a computer programmer. I wouldn't enjoy them necessarily but with training I could do them.

I’d love to retrain as a doctor , but need a partner earning double for next 7 years to support me with that process so it’s a sad pass from me

have the brains and skills needed

Definitely not....

DC1 works as a scientist but most people would not have the brain power, no matter how hard they tried, to learn how to do this.

I'm autistic and a symptom of that is incredible clumsiness. I could never be a surgeon or a hairdresser.

DC2 has ADHD and could never be a counsellor or do anything that involves a lot of listening to people because everything goes in one ear and out the other.

I think you should do what you're good at. Sure, you can enrol on a course that goes against the grain of what you've always done or exceed in but what if all that hard work you're putting into the course makes you stressed out and forget what your natural abilities are? I'd rather swim with the tide than upstream.

Me too. I can sing well and am lucky enough to have a nice voice. I can sight read almost anything. However I cannot sing anything from memory - so back to the ranks of the amateur choir for me.....

Having said that I was a tax partner for years. Its a job that requires a very good memory but of concepts and things that I have read rather than what things sound like.

DD is training to be a musician - she can play anything by ear but ask her to do a mental maths sum and she will have forgotten the first number by the time you have said divided by.....

I think that some jobs rely on someone being exceptionally gifted in a particular physical area and others often depend on the type of memory you have. Medics and lawyers need really good recall, other jobs rely on excellent physical co ordination.

Try again next time don’t just give up because if this thread
if you really want to be a tax person - be one!

I once knew a guy who had actually done this, years before. Terrible intonation - the result of allergies, apparently - but desperately wanted to sing professionally. I don't think he ever sang in an actual opera but he gave concerts and released LPs, becoming semi-famous in the process. Eventually he became a publisher and a (very good and erudite) writer on opera singers and recordings. I assume he had family money behind him.

No. You have to be intelligent enough to learn & understand it, a natural aptitude for it in the first place, and the unswerving will and determination to succeed. Even then, there are no guarantees in this life.

Definitely not.

I’ve got a pretty academic STEM degree.

No amount of quality and patient teaching could ever get me to a competent and sustainable level in several other careers. Nursery staff and comms roles being two that spring to mind.

I could almost certainly learn tax or accountancy, but I’d hate it.

No.
Im a teacher and my best friend is a doctor.
I am squeamish as hell so couldn’t be a doctor.
She is really awkward around children, has no patience for them and can’t talk to them, she could never be a teacher.

I used to teach at a top private girls' school. I once had a discussion with a class on this very topic. They wereall utterly convinced that literally anyone could be a top lawyer, surgeon etc if they worked hard enough. Nothing I said could convince them otherwise, and they thought I was being really mean when I said there were people who simply weren't intelligent enough to achieve this. Actually, it was a sign of their immense privilege. They had just never encountered anyone much less intelligent than them. Their idea of low academic ability was someone in the bottom set at their school who might dip down to a C in a couple of her GCSEs.

No. I don't think I'd be a very good trapeze or high wire act given my fear of heights, not a window cleaner for the Eden Project or a rock climbing instructor.

If only I worked hard, I could be a professional footballer, ballerina or opera singer.

No some people are better at some things than others.
Yes you can transfer skills but there are limits.
I know for a fact that some people cannot teach. They might know their stuff but they absolutely cannot teach it to others.

Yabu

I would fail the medical to enter the armed forces.

I can just about draw a stick person so would be a very unsuccessful artist

I'm clumsy and not elegant at all so would be a terrible ballet dancer

Somethings are inate, people have an aptitude for things and don't for other things.

I believe there is a job everyone can do, but everyone can't do every job.

I have a condition that makes my hands shake, probably don't want me doing neurosurgery. Even if I could learn how to.

Ha I did exactly this. Left a career in education to start a fast track civil service job to become a tax specialist. I lasted 10 months as despite the fact I have degrees and am intelligent, I’m absolutely shocking at maths 😂 anyway no harm done and all that but the manuals I was being given to read may as well have been hieroglyphics.