Why You Should Find Your Career Sweet-spot in High School

Career Sweet-spot is your area of Optimal Performance.

I never made a decision about the choice of my career until I was through from the university.

And it had its effect on my career path.

I have a degree in the industrial sciences, and I always wanted to work with multinationals in my country.

So, after, about three years of searching for a job, and I didn’t find any. Someone introduced me to content writing and how I could make a whole lot of money from writing for blogs and company newsletters.

I was paid a stipend for my first writing gig, N2, 000 for three articles in 2015, which was less than $3 per article. About 3 months later, I got another freelance opportunity, with an educational consultancy brand that was paying me $20 per article and I wrote 10 articles per month.

However, writing didn’t come in easy, not necessarily, because I am a bad writer, but there was no clear cut goal about my writing. When clients asked for what I did, I just told them that I write, and many perceived it as a hobby — it was not yet a career.

You don’t have to be gifted in your career, but your commitment in a skill can help achieve greatness in a career. Just ensure you keep developing yourself, that you don’t get out of demand.

So, why should you define your career in High School, when you are still 16 or even younger?

You Need A Career Goal

This sums up your whole career journey, and it will be your anthem when making decisions.

Jay-Z wanted to be the most influential Hip-hop artist in the world. He wasn’t just looking at record sales, or the Grammy’s — he wanted to be the reference point when it comes to success in the Hip Hop genre.

He was going to be a mentor to upcoming artistes, counsel to contemporaries and leverage to every other person in the American music industry.

JayZ has achieved all of these, and even much more because the career goals were defined early.

A career goal defined and pursued from high school finds a quicker opportunity for success.

Your Career goal should not just be I want to be an accountant or a Fashion designer. Without a career goal,Calvin Klein would have remained a tailor and not become a brand.

Your career goal is a requisite for greatness.

With a career focus in High School, you can make better decisions, and make the best choices of colleges, courses and mentorship.

And remember that pressures are minimal when choices are made early.

You will Fail Early and Probably Rise Early

It is easier to for a 16-year-old to rise up when he falls from a stairway than for a 40 –year old man. The latter is likely to miss out on work, spend more time at the hospital, and miss out his social roles at home.

As a Teenager, you can try acting, dancing, and music among others if you want a career in arts. While you might not be successful at all your trials, you have early chances to make your mistakes and take mastery.

You do not yet have multiple roles as a Teenager, hence, all your energy can be used to focus on your career path.

At this stage, you don’t have a lot of things to miss out on

It is safer to experiment in your Teens, or make mistakes which are almost inevitable. However, when you fail this early, you can rise quickly and the scars will heal before people notice.

The world might never remember you failed in Tenor, before you took mastery of soprano or that you were unsuccessful as a comedian before you became an influence in Emceeing.

When you arrive late at the career party, you come with a lot of visible scars.

You will Be Quick to Learn the Business side of your Career Choice

There is a business side to every hustle in Life. It’s the part where you are paid for your skill.

The business side is not just about making money, its knowing the your worth.

I was exploited in my first few years as a writer, and sometimes some clients still try and exploit me now. I didn’t make a lot of money as I thought it was all about writing, and I assumed clients should pay for the worth of the service.

If you don’t know the value of your service or how much your skill is worth, customers and employers will take advantage, and pay you peanuts.

When you find your career sweet-spot in high school along with it should come to the how to make money part, where you know the ultimate value of your skill. No one is working for free, not even a Teenager, because we have all got bills to pay.

I am sure you don’t want to be a hardworking Teenager who can’t afford a milkshake or Netflix subscription.

The best way to know your worth in high school is by finding out, how valuable your service is to the person or organisation that needs you, not by your age.

When you learn how to make money early, you will be able to further reinvest in your life.