How to Be Successful?

Is corporate career one of the ways to success in life?

There is a trend of blaming 9–5 job and corporate career on the Internet. It is usually explained that being an employee is a very bad choice and it means selling your lifetime for coins. It is also mentioned that most of the companies do not care about their workers, take all the margins to themselves, and can drop you any time they want. So, basically, it is quite trendy to say that corporate job is not a good choice.

But is it really like that?

The alternatives which are usually mentioned are self-employment, blogging, entrepreneurship etc. And of course, these alternatives are shown as a “silver bullet” for freedom, success and money.

There are several reasons for such trend. And the most important one from my point of view is that most of the Internet influencers are selling some courses or some other products which should help people to become a successful blogger, entrepreneur or whatever. You name it. As the Internet is full of such offers.

And there is nothing wrong with it. It can be a good business and many people can make money out of it. Actually, in many cases such products can work well and help other people to earn money and achieve their goals.

But the thing is it is not for everyone as well.

And what I do not like about this trend is that many people start to think negatively about corporate job in general and do not want to make any efforts to succeed in it if they have one.

Corporate career as the way to success

I have my own opinion about corporate career. I think there are many ways to success in life. And I believe that corporate career is one of them. And there is nothing wrong with it. Of course, I do not think that you should rely only on it. At some point in time, you need to start investing or doing some side projects or businesses (without leaving your 9–5 job) to have multiple income streams. However, my point is that corporate job can be a good place to start.

Why am I telling you this?

Because of the following:

· You will be able to learn a lot of different skills and practice them while working at big corporation. You will get support in your development from organization, in many cases it will pay for your courses if needed. Also, what is even more important instead of you paying for experience and learning, you will get paid (your salary) for it by the company you work for.

Doesn’t it sound great?

· You will be able to get in touch with inspiring leaders and get mentoring and coaching from them if you wish. It will be possible to build a great network of professionals in the industry where you work.

· You will get understanding how big business works and learn best practices in many areas such as sales, marketing, finance, merchandise planning, logistics etc. You will understand how to create processes and systems which organize and regulate work of different company departments and teams.

· Your salary will not be 6 or 7 figures to start with for sure. But let us be honest at the beginning of the career most of the people do not have anything to offer for such amount of money. But your salary will be a payment to you for you getting experience and learning.

Not bad, right?

Also, even not really high salary in many cases will be much higher than the amount of money which average independent creators or entrepreneurs get during their first 1–3 years with their projects. Most of them will never come to really big income figures which usually shown in advertisements of different courses.

At the same time your salary will be a regular payment which you can somehow rely on at least for some period of time if you work well.

We all need to eat, live somewhere and cover other basic needs. Not everyone can afford having some own business or project which do not give any money back for quite a long period of time at the beginning.

· You can focus on developing your career and move forward through corporate ladder and it will be really useful experience as well. It will help you to grow professionally and personally.

In some roles salaries are good enough to create a capital which can be used for building additional income streams and investing.

Additionally, if you grow to top positions at big corporations, you will be able to communicate directly to business owners and learn from them and even be involved in some separate projects and investment opportunities alongside with them.

Of course, all the above points are mostly related to well-known big corporations which are doing their businesses worldwide. And it’s always for you to decide where to work depending on skills you want to develop and industry where you want to be.

In addition, you should clearly understand disadvantages of corporate career as well and it should be clear for you that still it is business relationship and the bigger value you give the bigger reward you get.

And if the reward is not good enough for you it depends on you how to change this situation.

All the above it is my thoughts regarding corporate career as one of the good ways to start your professional life journey and make significant contribution in your overall success. As I do not agree with the point that 9–5 job is completely useless and can’t be a good path to succeed in life.

My thoughts are based on my experience of developing my corporate career from Intern/Junior Specialist level up to Board Member.