Given that this past Sunday was Father’s Day, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about my dad and the lessons I learned from him at a young age. Dad was a traditionalist. He had a single job for his entire career and ended up retiring from it at age 65.  If there is such a thing as an "entrepreneurial gene" it was clearly inherited from my mother. Despite our differences, the lessons that dad taught me about the working world still ring true today.

My father was a production manager for a handbag factory. I can still remember the smell of the leather pocketbook samples that he brought home, much to my mother’s delight. Besides handbags, dad brought home a variety of stories about his employees, from which I learned these five basic principles of career success.

1. Pursue a career that you are both skilled at and enjoy doing 5 days a week. If you are like the many people who still aren’t sure where your passions lie, there are many career assessment tests like the Strong Interest Inventory, the Strengths Finder and of course, the Myers-Briggs. My dad loved being a production manager and especially loved the manufacturing industry.
2. Pursue a career in which there is a need for the products and services today, and where there will be equal if not more demand in the future. Even if you don’t expect to stay at one company for 30 years, make sure that there will be plenty of other choices of companies in your industry as times goes on. Handbags are here to stay. They never go out of style because we women can never have enough of them. This also holds true for shoes and clothes and make-up. Need I say more?
3. Develop a craft and become an expert at it. Although my dad obviously was not a big fan of change, he was a prime target for opportunities at other handbag manufacturing companies. In these days, he would have received calls from headhunters every week trying to steal him away from his company, which would have meant great promotional opportunities.
4. Network with others in your industry. I remember dad attending national conferences to perfect his craft. From the other attendees and presenters, dad honed his skills and also came back with information on the latest developments in his industry, to share with the owner of the company.
5. Be committed. I’m not talking about being committed to one company for your entire career. I am talking about being committed to whatever you are doing at the time. It means taking responsibility for your achievements and for the quality and quality of work that you produce.