[mike]

Hello All,

Currently I am a rising 3rd year business administration student at Georgia Tech on the track to go into investment banking upon graduation. In addition to investment banking I am also very intrigued and actively engaged in other ventures and areas such as real estate, entrepreneurship, consulting, and personal investing. I find myself wanting to do everything but end up not being able to devote enough “true” focus to everything I want to accomplish. I am curious to hear others advise on how you prioritize time, putting passions on the back burner, and anything else that comes to mind.

-Mike

[captreeger]

Thanks for the excellent question, Mike!

It sounds like you at least have a basic direction, toward investment banking. But even that can take a number of forms, as you likely know.

As far as specific direction and allocation of your focus and time, I wish I had a magic answer. I sure believe in the power of focus, in many cases. But it seems like a lot of people don’t discover their career path until they’ve actually been in the workforce for a time, testing and learning their way through various considerations.

For my part, in deciding how to allocate focus and make career or life decisions, I like to start with an end in mind, weigh various factors, including what’s most important, and come up with a logical progression of how to move forward.

Stated differently: one of my best mentors used to tell me that if you have a clearly articulated understanding of who you are and where you’re going, then all of your decisions get easier, as you choose what will take you in the prescribed direction.

You may thus find focus and purpose in all of your decisions and direction. It may also help you in prioritizing your time, as you invest your minutes and hours in what takes you from where you are to where you’re going.

Some people suggest that you match your career with your passion. I don’t think that’s a wrong answer. But I also have seen plenty of people make shortsighted decisions or struggle in their work without a deeper understanding of how their passion fits their priorities and values. For example, if helping people is a more urgent priority to you than making money, you might make different choices than if your higher priority is to make money first and then better help others later. Only you will find the answer that best fits you. And maybe working through your goals and constraints and values will help you sort through it as an equation.

Perhaps you could think about what you want your future to be, what’s most important to you, your goals and objectives in your life, your current constraints, what you most like to do and don’t like to do, and what your greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are? I also think it can be empowering to write down a lot of these answers and even visualize yourself finding your way. And there’s research to support that you’re more likely to do something if you write it down in your handwriting.

I have an exercise to work through a lot of this. It’s the “Who You Are And Where Are You Going” excercise in the appendix of my book, “Finding the Way: The Entrepreneur’s Tale.” And I’m thinking of making it available on the site here. But you don’t need to do my exercise to work through these considerations. And Tony Robbins and most of the self help guys seem to have different life-planning exercises. Just putting pen to paper and getting started is worth something.

Aside from all of that, I think some of the career survey personality tests can be helpful. I’m reticent to recommend any in particular, because the ones I’ve taken have all had a cost; and I don’t know the best one. But you can find some at https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=career+survey+personality+tests&ia=web . Even a “strengths finder” exercise could help. And you may learn a lot in weighing your personality against career fits. It’s helpful to understand where your personality and aptitudes might bring your highest and best use.

Finally, on the surface, it doesn’t seem all that bad to me that you don’t have all of the answers just yet. I have been an entrepreneur, but have also been able to do plenty of real estate, consulting, and personal investing. And if it helps you feel any better, I didn’t know what I wanted to focus on until a few years into my career. So maybe it’s okay if you don’t have all of the answers just yet?

Maybe there’s even a lot of value in the pursuit so many things for now and learning and experiencing as you find your way?

It seems possible that as you move toward your investment banking, some of the other options may pull you toward new opportunities, whether within investment banking or otherwise. This might affect whether you do, say, private banking for real estate, personal investments with entrepreneurs, or otherwise. And maybe one of your efforts will become successful, you’ll find you love it, and that will drive your focus and decisions.

[Jon Hutson]

Mike,

Just to weigh-in here with Cap, I think his statement that he has “… having been an entrepreneur, but have also been able to do plenty of real estate, consulting, and personal investing. And if it helps you feel any better, I didn’t know what I wanted to focus on until a few years into my career. So maybe it’s okay if you don’t have all of the answers just yet?” is really instructive. I agree that you don’t have to have all the answers in the period of your current journey.

I believe that you should continue to focus on developing your core competencies and everything else will play out for you. Possibilities will emerge and you will be well-aligned with the opportunity.

There was a point in my career when an accomplished, successful ATL leader stated to me that maybe you can do both, when I was considering whether I should pursue a focus in brand or real estate development with both being related to my experience and education. I’m happy to say as I continue to progress in my journey, I’m doing both.

Continue to focus on building your skills and most importantly, relationships and you will be successful.

[matthewpinto10]

This is such a good question, and I love both of the responses! There’s such pressure to have it all figured out before you graduate college, and I think by dabbling in a couple things you’ll start to be able to have a pull toward 1 or 2 of them. I know I’m trying the same stuff myself, and hope to narrow down my focus as well!

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