Building your legacy, One baby step at a time.

I have been reading through a booklet I picked up at one of the conferences I have attended entitled: Legacies from Legends in Public Relations, in which several esteemed PR professional offer up their insight and advice to those looking to make a name for themselves in the profession.  With each page, I couldn't help but notice trends beginning to emerge from these words of wisdom, which I believe can be summed up into one comment made by Rick Murray, president of Edelman, Chicago at the DePaul University PRSSA's regional activity, "Be Fearless!"

Something about hearing him speak those words sparked excitement in me to go out and begin my career, a fearless warrior ready to take on and conquer anything that came my way.  However, while being fearless is a strong quality to possess, the kind of passion that it generates within a person is where I fear it can lead to demise.  I mean, you wouldn't fearlessly run into battle with a weapon that you have not been trained to use or more importantly practiced using, would you?

Much of the advice that I have received so far has emphasized discerning your strengths, which takes time and practice, and then perfecting them which takes an infinite amount of patience.  I constantly find myself saying in my head, "WHOA NELLY!" , because I will get so caught up in a moment and have a sudden desire to jump right in the water when I have only barely learned to keep my head above it.

It reminds me of this time I ran 10 miles without having prepared myself by building up to that level.  I may have been able to complete the task, but the next day I could barely walk and in the professional world I am guessing that, often times, you aren't given that time to recover.

I felt compelled to discuss this because of some conversations I have had with other students about already being able to do everything we need to get out there and find a "real" job without an internship.  If they are right, they can count me out of that statement because I, without a doubt, have plenty of room for growth and improvement.  I just need to learn not to let my ambitions get to best of me.