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

[Angryvindictivewasps]

Let's say you're in nursing and you start a career in tax, something you've never done before and have no knowledge in.
You're given a rigorous programme to get through in order to become a 'tax specialist'.
Would you feel like if you just worked hard enough, put in the extra hours and did all the studying, you or anyone could become this tax expert or (insert profession)

Or, do you believe that some people are just not cut out for certain careers no matter what or will just feel out of their depth and shouldn't feel they have to? Honestly at my point in life I don't think I've got the headspace to train in and learn something completely new and alien, especially something like that which doesn't interest me.

No-one would want me as their dentist.

Lol

No. I do a job that is academically complex, requiring a terrific memory and an ability to grasp very complicated ideas. Lots of people simply can't do it

Equally, i'd be an absolutely terrible hairdresser and would be useless in sales, or anything creative. No matter how hard i worked i just don't have the right abilities.

That was interesting But I think your final sentence is very off. You are talking about one person and it is really awful to make a sweeping prejudiced comment about men and race like that

Of course not.
I couldn't be a nurse, for example, mainly because I'm needle-phobic.

People have different capacity for learning, for concentration, for physical ability, let alone fitness, for reactions in emergencies, for socialising, for working alone, for taking instructions, for managing others, for doing night shifts, and so many other things that are needed in some jobs and not in others.

No. I'm blind so I couldn't fly a plane. Or you wouldn't want to get in with me.

I couldn’t work with kids, I just don’t have the right temperament.

And I have a lifelong phobia of messy eaters, so that also rules out a lot of caring jobs.

No, absolutely not. I'm a teacher, and I think it's a bit irresponsible to tell kids they can be whatever they want to be. It's simply not true. I have taught many, many kids who would never be capable of doing quite a lot of jobs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.
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.

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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’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

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.

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.