Ricky remembers telling his dentist when he was 12 years old that he wanted to be an actor when he grew up but he did not pursue this career until much later. In high school, he took his first job as a busboy to pay off a new car and then worked in retail. He entered business college planning to take over his dad’s business but his old dreams of becoming an actor remained. He began to do auditions.

Ricky’s early acting years were filled with ups and downs, and he continued to work in restaurants and retail while booking jobs. Over time, he began to coach aspiring actors and leveraged his networks to expand his clientele. Over the last 15 years, he has developed a strong reputation as both a performer and coach. Ricky’s success in his acting and coaching careers are grounded in one more important life lesson: learning to fail.

It took a lot of trial and error before Ricky drew a steady flow of students for coaching. With acting, Ricky had gone after jobs that didn’t pan out. Rather than viewing these failures as devastating, he saw them as new opportunities: “People never teach you how to cope with failure and failing for some people could be really, really difficult. But if you do it, you know how to deal with it, it’s like okay, alright, whatever. Now let’s go back and see what I can adjust for next time. So you’re never really failing anymore, you’re just kind of trying to get better.”

Ricky’s growth mindset and ability to normalize failure kept him perpetually striving towards new projects and goals. Taking a page out of Denzel Washington’s book, Ricky said, “They asked Denzel, ‘What’s your best movie?’ And he said, ‘Oh, it’s my next movie. If someone like that is trying to get better, each and every time, you’re going to be. You’re done if you don’t try to get better.”’

“Be the first to show up, the last to leave, and get your job done.” Robert recalls seeing his father work hard his whole life as a supervisor and a foreman and he brings this same work ethic to his career. His first job was at a skate shop where he learned to manage people and inventory. He helped his boss open three new stores and then manage them.

These experiences allowed Robert to transition to a larger company where he started as a sales associate and demonstrated his ability to succeed across multiple management and sales roles. He is currently a merchandiser and he loves to analyze the numbers and predict trends so he can send stores the correct inventory. Working his way from the sales floor to the corporate office, Robert has gained skills that have laid the foundation for him to excel at his job. He has been with his company for almost 10 years and has a high level of commitment and desire to be a positive influence on his work environment.

Over the last few years, Robert has learned how to be a better leader. A priority of his is to be empathetic and understand that every role in the company is important. “I have learned to take my intrinsic biases and expectations out of the equation and focus on what the employee is good at and drive them from there.” Despite his skills and accomplishments, Robert worries that he still needs a degree. If his company had a shift in leadership, there is a chance that they could require a bachelor’s degree for his position. He continues to take part in organizational training and classes to prepare him for the next step in his career.

Carol grew up with a family that instilled in her a strong work ethic as her parents worked long hours in retail and in gas stations. Carol learned that work is a part of life and requires dedication and responsibility. She became a mother in high school, and took a break from school but parenthood ignited a new flame for Carol. “After I had kids, exploring with them and teaching them, I just learned to enjoy learning a lot more.” Seeing the world through the eyes of her children showed her a path forward.

Carol developed strong communications skills working at call centers and through a stint studying broadcasting. Data entry taught her attention to detail and efficiency. Being a mother meant managing schedules, budgets, and personalities. And yet, when she got her associates degree in Veterinary Science, she had a hard time finding a job that fit her family obligations and made her feel valued. She felt overlooked on the job for not having a bachelor’s degree.

Always an amateur artist, she realized she had the skills to develop products that she could sell. She started her own business where she found the fulfillment and freedom that she had been looking for. Carol worked at trade shows for five years, but when the pandemic hit, the shows were suspended and she did not have the resources to move her business online. Carol has been without work for the past two years but she looks forward to rebuilding her business and selling her art in the future.

Reyna reflects that growing up low-income, she never saw a career path for herself but her experiences in various jobs helped her develop a vision of what she wants to accomplish. She started in the restaurant industry and worked briefly in an office before doing an IT internship through a youth work program. The internship experience helped her transition to a job in insurance sales, where she had to go through a rigorous training process and pass a state exam to get a license.

She applies many of the communication and teamwork skills she learned across her prior jobs to be successful in the sales role. She said, “my family doesn’t really come from any type of corporate field or anything of that sort. So just seeing the environment and talking to the people in that environment, really gave me a new perspective on how to see things and talk to people where I actually want to be.”

She also learned the importance of sticking up for herself in the workplace, especially as a woman who is interested in going into the tech field. She recalls how in meetings with potential clients, “they wouldn’t even look my way. They just made direct eye contact with the guys, with my male colleagues.” She describes having to adapt and focus on the client’s needs to show that she is capable. “I would just have to improvise and start thinking critically about what it is that they need.”

Reyna continues to work and take college classes towards a computer science degree. She wants to develop a learning and support platform that helps young people who come from similar backgrounds to hers. She says, “everyone has a different way to success, and navigating life is already hard as it is. I believe that once I create this, hopefully it could help out millions of kids who are going through it.”

Sharon is a billing coordinator for an accounting firm. She runs financial reports, analyzes them, and can explain them to colleagues and clients. She often manages multiple tasks at once and coordinates with colleagues. She developed the organizational, analytical, and communication skills to do this work over a series of administrative and billing support jobs.

Sharon noticed that the firms she worked for, especially the larger ones, invest only in the professional development of their senior staff, so she seized opportunities to invest in herself. Through guidance from colleagues, some training, and her own initiative, she mastered important workplace skills and learned many billing and project management software programs.

Sharon has been strategic in her job transitions. She started as a receptionist at a law office, became a billing specialist, and has had a series of jobs in law and accounting firms of varying sizes. She observed differences in how these workplaces treated their employees and used this information to navigate to jobs that met her preferences. She found that in small firms, she received more professional development support as well as a more welcoming workplace culture.

While she lacks a degree, her real-world experience seems to be valued in the field as she continues to get job offers. She has made multiple job transitions to higher-paying jobs over the years and during the pandemic found a new job that allows her to work from home. Sharon looks forward to retiring in a few years.

Erin found her way into the mortgage industry by starting out in accounting, moving into compliance, vendor management, and Due Diligence Warehouse Manager. Eventually, she became an Internal Audit Manager. She evaluates company policies and procedures, identifies deficiencies, and recommends improvements. With thirteen years of experience, she is a subject matter expert who interacts with high-level executives and presents at industry conferences.

She notes that the mortgage industry is particularly friendly to workers without degrees because all the skills can be learned on the job and through short company-sponsored training programs. That said, she still worries that she could be displaced by someone with a bachelor’s degree. Erin reflects, “When I think about if there was somebody else sitting right next to me with the same skillset, but they have a bachelor’s degree, I don’t know who they are going to pick.”

Erin has learned the importance of self care as she has navigated the industry. As a woman of color, she has experienced micro-aggressions on the job and has learned to navigate them. She plans to recommended development of a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging committee in her organization, and she believes that companies should recognize the importance of mental health. Her experiences has made Erin want to “pay it forward”.

On top of the demands of being a full-time worker and single parent, she serves on the board of directors of a local nonprofit. Her discipline, public speaking skills, communication skills, and experiences working with high level executives are useful contributions to the organization and she finds personal fulfillment in expanding her comfort zone and building her leadership skills. Erin’s dream job is to support young people in their personal journeys as a life coach or counsellor.