• Opinion

Opinion: Young People Need to Take the Time to Develop Professionally

• By Ky Soklim
• June 10, 2021 4:38 PM

I would like to make my apologies in advance if this piece affects the feelings of some individuals who are reading it. From what I have observed over the last 10 years, I have noticed that there is a good amount of short training courses which aim to teach young and older people how to become a successful person or a wealthy person in a small amount of time.

Actually, there seems to be little wrong with these short training courses as the sole purpose is to create need, motivation or an emotional spark of dreaming. This kind of activity actually boosts the desire as well as the energy for those who possess big dreams, especially the younger generation.

Teaching them to dream big, aim high and take risks in order to gain life experiences is, of course, a good life lesson. “Fall down? Get up!” this is a common phrase that has been repeatedly used by many people imparting wisdom. The product of failure is life experiences. This is just a taste of life.

Even though I do regard that training for “success” is not bad, I would like to inform those trainers to kindly understand that, in this world, regardless of the type of education offered, there is simply no chance in which everyone is going to be successful.

If everyone can become wealthy or highly successful after attending this training, then there will no longer be any poor individuals in this world. Realistically, the world is still filled with poor people. To be more precise, education and training can more effectively keep you out of poverty. The perception of becoming wealthy and highly successful after obtaining those training courses seems to be not fully realistic.

From what I view, short course trainers who teach courses on success or courses on leadership should not boil down too much of this get-rich-quick ideology for young people. This leads to misconceptions that success is simply about attitude or appearances, which neglects the hard work, ingenuity and—often—good fortune that all mix together to build success.

Then comes another issue, what is success and how should it be measured, especially by young people who gave their lives to build a career in something they care about?

For me, I personally believe that success will choose young people who study hard to gain theoretical knowledge, work hard to gain practical knowledge that will allow them to learn more through more advanced work experience, but this all takes time.

Specialized skills will develop over time with a mix of persistence and a willingness to accept criticism, failures, and missed opportunities, but also to learn from these things and apply those lessons to the next opportunity.

In short, young people do not need to rush when it comes to success and the benefits of a short training course should be cumulative, adding to the perseverance and commitment to their chosen field or specialism.