Want Greater Career Success? Develop a Pioneer Mindset

There’s always a way.

I knew a woman who worked at a publishing company. Apparently, it’s tough to get into the industry, particularly on the editorial side of the business. The competition is fierce. Even though she was told that getting a job in another department just put you on track for promotions in that department, she took a job in production. She kept signing up for cross-department groups, offered editorial advice on her projects when it seemed appropriate, and eventually, she got a job in editorial.

She couldn’t believe all of the emails she received from others in production offering congratulations and asking how she had made the leap.

Just because somebody tells you something can’t be done doesn’t mean that it can’t. If somebody never tells you that you’re good enough or capable enough to make something happen, doesn’t mean you aren’t. It simply means that they don’t know how to do it. Why do we have the word “pioneer” in our language? Because we need a term for all of the people who do things that nobody else has ever done. And they are everywhere.

What beliefs about what is possible and what is not run rampant in your company? Are you letting them hold you back?

It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing what people who seem to know better or who seem to have our best interests at heart tell us. We usually don’t consider that there’s more they aren’t telling us. The people teaching or guiding us often only have the opportunity to study winners from afar, so they never get past the superficial “packaging.” They never learn what makes true winners tick.

Winners challenge myths and doubts.

Incorrect assumptions based on incomplete evidence are the source of the myths we believe—like the power of luck or talent or family connections—and the source of our own doubts.

Look at Kurt Warner—he wasn’t drafted by the NFL out of college. In fact, he couldn’t even get a division 1 college to give him a scholarship. But he never lost his grip on his dream of playing in the pros. It took him a while. He had to attend a Division 2 school, play in the Arena Football League, bag groceries at $5.50 an hour to survive, and then play in NFL Europe before he got his chance. But once he did, he made an impact. In his second year he quarterbacked the St. Louis Rams to victory in the Superbowl, winning the game’s MVP award in the process!

Instead of accepting myths and doubts, winners challenge them. They don’t meekly accept that they don’t have a chance. They don’t let themselves get bullied into not trying. Winners dig in and find out for themselves if what they’re being told is true. They find out if the obstacles they’re facing are big enough to make trying a waste of time. Usually they find out that lots of people facing similar obstacles win anyway.

Take a look at what it is you believe about success and try to figure out who planted those ideas. Were those people winners? Did they achieve what they wanted in life? If not, should you blindly trust that what they’ve told you about winning is true?

To achieve what we want in life, we have to first conquer the doubts holding us back—and that means developing a pioneer mindset and attitude. Find your own answers to the questions you have about how to succeed and then decide to make it happen.