One Step At A Time

So many people these days seem to be in a big hurry to get somewhere in their life fast.  It appears to me, that at the end of the day it is better and more efficient to take one step at a time. 

I always remember telling participants of our seminar, "How do you walk 100 miles?" They reply, "One step at a time. "

I was recently asked if I would talk to a very well-educated gentleman in his late forties about assisting him with some career counselling.  He was a very charming gentleman, originally from Pakistan, and had had some fairly senior positions there. 

He came to a new country and couldn’t find a position at the equivalent rank to his native country. Reluctantly, he took a much more junior job after many knock backs when applying for senior roles.  His career had then been a series of hurried efforts to get back to the top and any time a job opportunity came, he took it. 

As I listened to the story of his work history in the seven years he had been in his new country, he really hadn’t advanced at all.  I asked him the question, "If you had joined one company at a less senior level, perhaps somewhere in junior or middle management and stayed there, what position might you have had today?  Would it have been a higher position than you are now?"  He replied that he was in too much of a hurry to get back to the senior jobs that he had previously had in his mother country. 

I think there is great merit and wisdom for all of us in the idea of "one step at a time"; however I am sure there are many who would not agree with me!  What do you think?