Category: Career

3 skills from your childhood that can bring high income

/ raghavendra / Leave a comment
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko: https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-laptop-near-the-dollars-and-papers-on-a-wooden-table-6693655/

I thought I needed complex skills to make high income. As I learned copywriting and started writing for clients, I realized that I have learned and practiced three skills in my childhood, which I can upgrade to build a high income career. I would like to share them with you today.

So, here are three basic skills you learned as a child that can be developed into career-making, high-income abilities:

  1. Reading

Photo by cottonbro studio

While reading alone won’t guarantee you a high income, it creates an essential foundation for the other two skills.

  • Reading does more than transfer information—it transforms your mind. When you read a philosopher’s work, you begin thinking like one. Reading business books shapes your business mindset. Each book imparts the author’s clarity, perspective, and life experiences, enabling you to think like the successful people you read.
  • Your reading choices shape your thinking, actions, and worldview. Each new text you absorb either reinforces or transforms your perspective. (This is why it’s important to choose your reading material carefully.)

Reading helps shape the vision of who you want to become — builds your self-image.

  1. Writing

Photo by Todoran Bogdan from Pexel

Writing is a powerful skill that can influence millions of people — it’s your tool to share knowledge and shape how others think.

  • You can transform your basic writing skills from childhood into a lucrative career. Here are some promising areas:
    1. Copywriting: Put your writing skills to work creating ads, emails, web copy, and landing pages for businesses. Specializing in high-conversion copywriting can lead to substantial income.
    2. Technical Writing: If you’re drawn to technology, science, or engineering, consider technical writing. You’ll craft valuable documentation like software guides and product instructions, making complex information accessible to users.
    3. Content Marketing and Strategy: As businesses shift from traditional advertising to content marketing, they need skilled writers. By creating content that aligns with business goals and mastering SEO, analytics, and storytelling, you can build a profitable career managing content operations.
    4. Ghostwriting: Social media has created demand for high-profile figures to maintain an active online presence. As these busy professionals can’t always write their own content, ghostwriters step in. Writing for influential people can become a rewarding career.
    5. Scriptwriting and Video Content: The boom in video content across social media platforms has created opportunities for scriptwriters. Whether it’s feature films, TV series, or digital content for YouTube, creating engaging scripts can lead to a profitable writing career.

You can offer these writing services as a freelancer, full-time employee, or through your own agency.

  1. Speaking

Photo by Caleb Oquendo from Pexel

When I first learned to speak as a child, I thought speaking was simply a tool to share thoughts and feelings. As an adult, I spoke my mind freely, not realizing the consequences. It took time for me to understand that speaking to people is much more complex than telling everything that came to my mind. It is a skill everyone needs to master, because:

  • Every word you speak reveals something about you—your knowledge, personality, social position, and self-image.
  • Speaking has a more immediate impact than writing. Whether addressing a small group or a large audience, your words generate instant reactions. Through speaking, you can create profound and lasting connections with people.
  • Mastering this skill can make you highly sought after for social gatherings, business conferences, and public events.

These fundamental skills we acquire in childhood can be refined into powerful professional tools that build remarkable careers.

How to change career without downgrading yourself – 5 hurdles to pass

/ raghavendra / Leave a comment

“I am a Software Engineer. My job is not interesting. So I am thinking to quit my job to learn music. Please guide me”, one of my readers wrote to me.

Jumping from one field into another is a big decision.

You cannot take such decisions simply based on your emotions or desires. Changing into another field is not as simple as taking another job. It involves a radical change happening in your personality, identity and your life.

If you are also in such a dilemma, consider the following points before taking the leap. You will know why it is crucial to take a smooth transition instead of taking a sudden jump.

1. Downgrade from expert to student

As a software engineer, you are already an expert in a field. When you leave it to pursue another career, you are downgrading yourself – From being an expert to a student.

This affects your psychology in many ways. For some, money may not be a major factor. But, when entering into another field, where you are a beginner. You will have to work hard towards keeping your confidence level high.

Remember, you will not recognize the psychological downgrade happening within you immediately. But, handling that while focusing on learning is strenuous. So, it is better to transition from your day job to your interest in a smooth way.

2. Can you give 8 hours to music a day?

Secondly, as an engineer, you are working for about 8 hours a day. When you quit the job, you cannot put all those 8 hours in learning music. Because it is relatively a new field, you cannot focus for long. Even if you practice music for 4 hours, the other 4 hours will be spent on less productive works. This drains your focus and eagerness.

It takes time to tune yourself up to this new journey. Your body, mind, and your routines need to be tuned.

What to do instead:

Apart from the 8 hours you give to your job, you have another 16 hours. Isn’t it?

So, instead of sacrificing your 8-hour job, try doing this – Sacrifice an hour or two of your sleep, an hour of TV and an hour of social media. Now, you have 4 hours a day to practice your music.

Then slowly increase the time.

3. Dealing with the changed self-image

There is another thing you should keep in mind. That is your idea of yourself – your self-identity. Now you identify yourself as an engineer. As a software engineer, you have a self-image – the way you present yourself, communicate with others and also the people you meet and admire.

When you change your field of interest, you might undergo a radical shift in your self-image. Now you will stop reading the tech news, meeting or following those tech personalities. You will begin to read about musicians, meeting people with similar interests.

So far you were identifying yourself as a software engineer. And changing that identity does not happen immediately. It takes time to engrave the new identity in your mind.

That is why you need to transition smoothly.

4. Are you serious?

People are crazy. One day they dream of becoming movie actors. The next day, they dream about going back to the village and becoming agriculturists.

The problem with people is not the lack of energy. It is the lack of focus. It takes at least 6 months to know if you are serious.

So, when you go for a smooth transition, within 6 months, you will know how serious you are. If you are doing it because ‘others are learning music’, you will see soon your interest evaporating day by day.

5. Creativity and hard work

As a software engineer, mostly you are doing the same thing every day. But with music, after a level, you will start experiencing creative juices flowing from within. And the joy pushes you to go deeper/higher. It is a hard journey. Are you ready for it?

So, what is a smooth transition?

Think of an hourglass. The sand starts slowly moving from the top part into the bottom one. This is how you should change your career.

Now, you are interested in learning music. Instead of leaving your job, make the best use of your free time to learn music. Also, develop your interest, reverence towards the art. Can you devote yourself to this completely? Like there is nothing else in your life? Even devotion takes practice. So, practice it.

Start practising music. Read about music and musicians. And do Satsanga.

Satsanga?

No, I am not talking about Bhajans.

Satsanga is when you spend time with people who energize you towards your goal or greater ideal.

Talking and reading about tech titans is Satsanaga for a software engineer. But, to become a musician, you should start having Satsanga with great musicians.

Also, build a long-term plan for your new field of interest.

While doing all this, observe how you undergo a change in your personality. This helps you understand yourself better.

Is the L-board mindset is hurting your career?

/ raghavendra / Leave a comment
Image by Foundry Co from Pixabay

The day I bought my brand new car, I was too worried.

For a few days, it was nightmarish even to think about parking it inside the compound. Through that narrow lane.

‘Should I use an L-board’, I asked a friend.

`No’, she said.

I was in a dilemma.

Because I had rammed the car into a compound wall only on the third day of buying it. While parking.

And what might happen when I drive it through the heavy traffic of a city road?

But, the idea of admitting myself as an L-board, I didn’t like it. Even though it was my first car, and I was learning to ride.

As an L-board, you have many benefits.

  • People on the road, won’t show anger on you when your car’s mirror collides with theirs. 
  • They always try to keep a safe distance.
  • Even police will understand if you’re involved in an accident.

Everything is good. But, what about your self-image? How do you feel yourself when you are declaring that you are an L-board, a novice?

Every time you sit inside your car, you’ll feel that you’re not good enough.

`Do you want that?’, she asked me. 

What are you feeding into your own mind?

This is not just about driving your car. Listen to people around, most of them doubt their own capabilities. 

“Novelist, me? No way”

“Starting a business? Not in my blood”

“That person, unlike me, is genius.” 

Now, look at the high achievers around you. When they started something, they too felt like an L-board.

But they decided to throw the board away as quickly as possible, while most of us clung to it.

Because they believed in the projected image of themselves as masters. This is the leap that they took towards the unmanifest – the possibility of being a master.

So, if you want to be a master in any field, the first step starts with the belief that you are capable of. This belief has to grow into your whole being. Then it starts working for you. It changes your body language and behaviour.

So, whenever you start a new endeavour, the first step starts with your mind. You have to create an image of success and feel it. Feel it as deeply as possible, until you know what it feels to be successful. And begin your endeavour with that feeling. Hold on to that feeling even when you are failing. 

This is how you get out of the trap of being an L-board, an average.

Here, all you need is a little courage. The courage to throw that L-board.

So, never think that you will start something after you are ready. You are never ready unless you believe it. So, feel it first, create a belief and then begin to act.

Apple, the world’s biggest tech company was started in a garage. With the help of a bunch of boys from the neighbourhood. But Steve Jobs, one of its founders and an iconic leader, always talked like they were into something huge. 

This very mindset pushed them into creating iconic products that transformed the world. 

Remember, L-board is always a dent in your confidence. 

So never say, I am an aspiring actor, aspiring writer or aspiring businessman. 

You are an actor, that’s why you act. Cut that `Aspiring’ out! Because, even after you did your best work, you remain an actor.

And when you believe in that, opportunities begin to come in search of you.