Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
What's wrong is blaming the industry as some on this board are wont to do when they look back at a career attempt that they believe did not go their way. Giving up in the early stages of an aviation career and calling it "cutting one's losses," however, is much like buying an automobile and turning it back in half-way through making the payments. Certainly one is "cutting losses," but the truth is that one simply hasn't finished making the necessary investment in the car.
Some people have made the determination that past a certain point, the costs of being in the career outweigh the returns. Those people typically view a career as a means to help achieve bigger goals in life; nothing more. Purchasing an automobile is a bit simplistic as one has a choice in which vehicle they’re going to purchase. One doesn’t show up to the airlines with wet licenses and say “I’ll take the wide-body position with the high pay and good schedule, please”. Surely one can work towards that position. And it may take them a lifetime to get there. But no two paths are the same. Each person has to determine if the “juice is worth the squeeze”. That’s up to each individual and their goals and aspirations. Either way, aviation, as with any career, is one where somebody has to roll the dice and see if it fits them and their goals. I know one person who was remarkably “lucky” and only had to do 3 years at a regional before getting hired on at Southwest. There was nothing extraordinary about his credentials; he was in the right place at the right time. I also know an individual that was completely decimated financially at 58 years old when his carrier tanked and he had to start over at a regional. Only those two can judge their respective careers and career choices.
Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
If instead the original poster views his or her career attempt as an experiment in which he learned that it just wasn't for him, that her heart simply wasn't in it, or that the original expectations had been unrealistic and a reassessment of the future dictated a different direction, then one could argue that the original poster was successful in his or her endeavor.
We’re in agreement on this. I don’t advocate the victim mentality and the “industry” certainly is not out to get people. The industry is what it is…
Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
We're the pilot in command. The buck stops with us. We don't guess. We don't suppose. We don't think we know. We know. We must know. We must not be in doubt. We don't blame the copilot. We don't blame the flight engineer. We don't blame anyone but ourselves, as we make the call, and we're responsible for the outcome. We don't wait for our ship to come in. We build it, and we sail it.
You answered this well enough in your paragraph above. I will make one addition: that the career wasn’t meeting goals and expectations. Certainly there are some unrealistic goals and expectations out there. But goals and expectations do have their place in every career. Each person has to make the individual determination if theirs are being met. Just like an approach: Sometimes the best option is to go missed and divert to the alternate.
Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
I've found that axiomatically, as the proverb says, it's not really so much a matter of having what you want so much as wanting what you have.
Or another way: "We make ourselves rich by making our wants few"