Front of the line, who’s coming with me?

You have heard it before “hey buddy the line starts in the rear”. Through the first half of my 53 years on earth I have to say I pretty much complied with that request, however something clicked one day and I thought not so fast should I conform to that line of thinking.

I get that if I’m at the movie theater, the department of motor vehicles, or waiting at the Doctors office I’m behind those in front of me and I patiently wait my turn.

On the other hand at work if I’m the last hired in my department or into my position I should not expect those ahead of me get promoted first.

At school if you just enrolled in classes you should not expect those a semester or two ahead of you taking the minimum full time class load or changing their majors to graduate ahead of you.

When you graduate and interview for that first “real job” your attitude should be the most recent person interviewed (You) should be hired ahead of those that interviewed ahead of you.

Elite athletes that trained longer don’t finish for very long ahead of elite athletes that trained harder.

In sales the leaderboard (rankings) rarely coincides with tenure.

The more I thought about it I came to the conclusion that the line that starts in the rear are for those that are comfortable in the back, but not for a front runner like me. I’m not looking for the easy path but I will take full advantage of a smarter shorter path. At my age I don’t have time to start at the back of the line when it comes to professional pursuits.

The warp speed version of my personal situation is in 2008-09 I got laid off from a great job at a great company in the not so great Economic down turn that hit the mortgage banking industry hard. Like others similarly effected I got some bumps and bruises before I landed back on my feet. The next path I chose was part-time healthcare recruiting while I pursued to further my education. I closed 3 out of 4 positions the first time I got at a real recruiting “at bat” with a client. I changed schools for a more accelerated degree program and graduated ahead of schedule. My most recent path finds me in the marketing automation technology space selling and consulting my friends back in mortgage banking. Not bad for someone that could have took it easy in the rear of the technology line.

Regardless of your age next time you are pursuing something worthwhile come join me at the front of the line.