Have you been as successful as you could have been?

[iwanttobeonleave]

If not, why do you think that was? What held you back in your career?

Or looking at it the other way, what made or helped you be as successful as you are?

I've been mulling over why I don't run a FTSE100 company (), and why some people make it and others don't.....

@RB68

I am 54 this year, we have 2 companies and DH is also VAT registered self employed.

I was a co board member (mgt) at 26
Learnt that I wanted to make a difference not a fortune
Worked in Vol sector (paid) to just below board level dep'ing for country level directors and so on with Strategy and Planning, made redundant 2 and appealed and got other jobs 3rd time they succeeded and I left - my daughter was 3. I decided I wanted to be around to pick her up, go to school events and do things to really make a difference.
We have a good living from our companies, I lost 3 parents (one MIL) in last 2 yrs 2 of them I had significant careing responsibilities, did 2 of the estates - I was able to be there for daughter, parents and siblings
Could I have had a bigger "career" oh definitely - still could really.

I was mentioned in the Birthday Honours list this yr and collected my medal not so long ago - for making a real difference.

Ask me what I am proud of...

It aint the jobs

Fabulous!! Good for you 👏🏻👏🏻

No, because I'm a bit lazy.

It's always taken me half the effort to exceed the results of others in work. But the trouble is, I'm happy just giving that much effort. I can't really be bothered to work full pelt all the time. So here I am.

I did extremely well at school and uni (sorry to brag but just being honest) and I think I've got other useful skills too (management skills, hard working etc), but I've taken my foot off the pedal in order to prioritise my DC (now teens) - taking time off when they were little, returning part time, not going for promotions etc.

I have a good professional job, but not the stellar career that I perhaps could have pursued. I'm happy with my choices

Yes. I had an abusive upbringing and didn't do well in exams but I'm an associate professor in a Russell group university now so I've done ok I think.

Earnings wise? No. I intentionally walked away from a very lucrative career and into the non-profit world. I wanted a better work/life balance and I wasn’t always comfortable with the ethical compromises in the corporate version of my career.

The work that I’m doing now is arguably at a more impactful level than the work I was doing before and that is also very meaningful for me.

I'm pretty content with my 'status'

Have a professional job using my degrees, the job is decent pay, flexible and has a lot of variety and has given me some opportunities that have challenged me a lot (like TV and speaking).

I don't feel like a loser.

I was divorced 11 years ago and that set me back a lot having two young children on my own and all that entails around childcare, but with a lot of juggling, I feel like I do have a place where I am content. I don't want directorships and power though, I'm happy just being a decently paid 'professional'

Yes, but I took the long route round. Had far far too much fun of all sorts from18-21, dropped out of uni, but
Got there in the end.

The people who clamber to the top of the pyramid because they thrive on status and recognition need other people to consider being at the top of pyramid to be "success" in order for them to have that status and recognition.

It's a choice whether or not to go along with that narrow view of the world. I'm not sure it's a wise choice to take that view if all it does is undermine your self esteem.

Interesting question. Qualifications-wise, absolutely not. I have a degree, an MA and a PhD. The last two have been completely useless for me career-wise. I started a job 22 years ago that has zero career progression and I am still doing it. On the other hand, it is a part-time job that pays relatively well and gives me the school holidays off which has been worth its weight in gold. I would love to change careers once the children are out of school but I guess it will be too late then. It was a pragmatic choice. I don't hate my job but I don't love it either and it has definitely got worse during Covid times. Every time I have looked around though, I haven't found anything that would suit me better. My DH travels a lot and loves his job, and I am a bit envious of that I suppose.

Not at all. Partly due to my own choices, partly due to luck.

I'm a chartered accountant, living/working in a run down Northern town. Wages around here are much lower than the cities, but it's a choice I made to stay here rather than move to a city. I've never earned enough to be a higher rate taxpayer, even when full time working, but that's the nature of the local job market. That's my choice to stay local.

But, even then, I've had bad luck in that I've left jobs for what I thought were better prospects, but three times, if I'd stayed just a little longer, it would have led to partnership and maybe owning a firm outright. In all three cases, there was no "obvious" career progression to partnership as there were already partners in place who showed no sign of leaving/retiring etc and in small town accountancy firms it's always "dead man's shoes", i.e. waiting for a partner to leave/retire before a vacancy comes available. In all three cases, a partner did indeed unexpectedly leave within a year or two of me leaving, where I was "next in line" for partnership and I had the financial backing to buy in. In one case, the owner actually got sent to prison for fraud, in another case, a middle aged partner retired early due to ill health and in the third case, the senior partner died.

As it happens, I set up my own small "one man band" accountancy practice which has served me well, allowed me to work part time, choose my hours, choose my clients, etc., so it's worked from a lifestyle perspective, but financially, not so much as I have to do a lot of low value work, so financially still not very lucrative, and still not enough to reach higher rate tax bracket!

I did very well in my 20s - just kept zigzagging up the ladder by going for positions that interested me , if I had at least some relevant experience that I could describe persuasively- and then there comes a point when Ii didn’t have to because the headhunters came for me.

My older brother commented that my career looked, in retrospect, very logical and planned out, though he knew it wasn’t the case at all ! He’s older, and had had a similar experience: not sure what in our background had equipped us for this- it certainly wasn’t money, connections or pushy parents, though they always made us feel that we could do whatever we put our mind to.

I was in a senior position in my 30s and it was expected by a the large corporation that I would take the next step, which would mean huge money but also being purely management with little of the creative element.

So I did some hard thinking and realised that this was as far as I wanted to go - I had had some amazing experiences, done work I could be proud of and trained others in a way I felt morally right.

I left to go freelance and to start a family - have done other interesting things, gone down different paths.

I feel successful on my own terms - some friends from the time would say I should have gone on, should have reaped the really big financial rewards and the recognition but I’ve also seen what they sacrificed in personal terms and I have no regrets.

I have not been, as I chose to become an “expert practitioner” rather than go into higher management roles.
When offered, I operated the rare move, Peter's Parry (see the Peter Principle) and turned it down. As expected, it slightly soured senior management's attitude to me for a while, but eventually, it contributed to me being left alone more, as a “safe pair of hands”, so I was happier at work.
It also meant that I could have a bit more of a life, rather than eat, sleep and breathe work, as they all seem to.