Guest Author - Ogo Ogbata

Career success is something we all crave for. After all we need to excel career-wise in order to meet our financial obligations, feel emotionally fulfilled and make a difference in the lives of others. However, career success requires more than intelligence, punctuality and company loyalty. It requires vision! Have you ever wondered why some people advance quickly at work while others fall to the wayside? Lack of vision is a key mistake to avoid in the course of your computer career.

If you were travelling somewhere you've never been before, you'd try to find out a bit about the place, wouldn't you? You'd want to know everything there is to know about the terrain, the people and the culture. So why is it that many computer career people think that they can coast their way into career success? The bad news is, you won't go far without a clear vision of where you're going. The good news is that creating a vision isn't as hard as it sounds.

Just grab a pen and create 3 separate columns on a sheet of paper. In the first column write down your long term career goals, in the second column write down your mid-term career goals and in the last section put down all the goals you would love to accomplish in the short term. For instance, your long term goal may be setting up your own computer hardware store, whilst mid and short term goals could be: 'becoming office manager' and 'employee of the year' respectively. Your goals must be specific and time sensitive (e.g. 'I intend to set up my own hardware store in the next 5 years' is better than 'I would love to start my own business someday').

Once you've put your career goals down on paper, it'll be time to make them a bit more multi dimensional.

Start by picturing yourself in the new role. What does it look like? What will the day to day running of your life and enterprise look like after you achieve this goal? How will you operate? Who will be there? How will you feel? How will you behave? What aspects of your life will change?

Can you stretch this vision beyond your comfort zone in order to make it more unique, exciting and compelling? Can you break new ground? What challenges will you encounter in your new career? Who will compete with you in the market place? What beliefs, values and attitudes will give you the edge over your competition and enable you overcome challenges and setbacks?

How will you celebrate your achievements? How will accomplishing your career goals affect and influence others around you (family, friends, community etcetera)? How will contemporaries, the media and the general public regard you? How will they relate to you? Whose success story inspires you to succeed? Why? What do you have in common with that successful being? What will motivate you to succeed against all odds?

As you answer the above questions, you will find yourself creating a vivid picture of what you want to achieve as well as feeling excitement about the prospect. This is a good sign as you cannot achieve what you simply cannot imagine and it's also difficult to accomplish goals that don't excite you.

Bill Gates has been credited for revolutionising the computer industry but this feat wasn't achieved overnight. From the time Bill was a young boy he dreamt that someday every office and household would own a computer. At the time, computers were a bit of a curiosity and owned by only a few institutions. Today, computers are so much smaller, faster, easier to use and more versatile.

Whether you're a computer programmer or a graphics designer, a hardware manufacturer or an IT consultant, you can realise career success by creating a tangible vision of what you want to achieve.

Next week, we'll look at the second mistake you must avoid in your computer career. Until then, dream big but start small!