Business is Child's Play

When I Grow Up I Want To Be A Kid

Have you ever heard a child list off all of the things they want to be when they grow up? As a kid I wanted to be an actress and a flight attendant … at the same time. My brother wanted to be a farmer, a fireman, and a dad. He accomplished one of those objectives. Both my daughter and son want to be moms. Very flattering of course.

As we continue through our education we still have many career objectives. In high school acting was still at the forefront but once I entered college I thought I needed a more marketable degree so I decided to study Political Science with the intention of entering law school. During a constitutional law class I cried my way through a final to a passing grade. Law wasn’t for me. From there I decided to focus more on the poli sci career track. I worked on several campaigns and in the end discovered you work 100 hours a week for a very meager salary and absolutely no job security.

Over the last 10 years my career has navigated through a series of sales and marketing jobs. Through process of elimination I finally found a career path I was comfortable with and a job I’m excited about. It did cause me to question, “What next?”. I had spent years working towards the next career objective and now I had reached the end of that path.

But what a leadership role has taught me is that I’m now responsible for helping others discover their journey. As a leader your focus is no longer where you go next, but where you take your team. You’re responsible for building an organization that thrives and contributes. As a leader your success is measured by the success of your team. You’re no longer responsible for just your career objectives but the career objectives of every single person on your team. It’s a thrilling journey with endless opportunity. And perhaps you’ll discover some new career objectives along the way.

What did you want to be when you were younger?

Post By Marilyn Cox (75 Posts)

Marilyn Cox is the Director of Marketing Communications at Cincom Systems. She is responsible for the marketing communication and content strategy as well as sales enablement. She manages technical writing, education development, translation services, copywriting, and graphic design resources. She also manages large scale marketing campaigns, website initiatives, and the Eloqua strategy. Marilyn is a PMP certified project manager responsible for the development of project management processes, integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, and procurement management. Marilyn received her degree in Political Science from The Ohio State University and is the author of BusinessisChildsPlay.com. She classifies herself as a left brain mind living in a right brain world. Her focus is content development to enable and align marketing and sales strategies. While not geeking out over marketing analytics she enjoys Ironman training in solitude and Ironmom conditioning with her two children.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, April 29th, 2012 at 11:03 am. It is filed under Employee Development, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.