Five Keys to Success By Joseph Mantua, Chesapeake Section Director I recently had the opportunity to speak to a group of Young Professionals. I decided to share with them a few of the things that I have found to be important in navigating through a career. There are many pieces of advice that could be given to those just starting out – but I thought it might be difficult to discuss any more than five of them, especially right after lunch! So here is my list of five: 1. Don’t let your ego interfere with your success Every once in a while it is acceptable to realize you might not be as talented or gifted as you might think. Otherwise, you may never grasp your areas of improvement. It is all too easy to feel or insist that certain people may have misjudged your abilities or treated you unfairly; more often than not, they are probably right and are trying to help you improve. Listen and try to learn from it. 2. Be flexible Do not be afraid to try new things and leave your comfort zone. It can be difficult to break out of routines, but the more diversified you become as a professional the more valuable you will be. 3. Network Get to know as many people as possible. The more people you know when you are going to need a contact or a reference. 4. Be a Good Communicator Practice, practice, and practice your writing and speaking skills. Do not be afraid to up in front of a group and speak. In fact, take every opportunity you can to work on you communication skills. Being able to communicate is critical to success and the more you practice it, the better you will become at it. 5. Have Fun Work will never be as much fun as sitting on a tropical beach or touring some exotic location – that is a given. But it is important to enjoy what you do and to look forward to going to work every day. Obviously some days will be better than others, and there will be bad days along way, but make an effort to have fun at work. Life is simply too short to spend eight hours a day being miserable. When I finished addressing the group, I suddenly realized that simply becoming an active member of CSAWWA enables you to achieve all five of these goals. As an active member of CSAWWA, I find that it is different to harbor a big ego – Who has time for that? With more than 25 different working committees, CSAWWA offers plenty of opportunities to expand your horizons. The first committee I participated on was Community Relations. I certainly had no background in this area but learned quickly. Networking is an integral part of any professional association, and active participation will introduce to many new
people and ideas. I actually met many of my WSSC colleagues through CSAWWA activities. There is no better place than CSAWWA to hone your communication skills; the annual conference, spring meeting, Chesapeake magazine and other technical programs offer ample opportunity to write articles and make technical presentations to your peers. Lastly, you will not find a better more exuberant group of people to work with than the members of the Chesapeake Section of AWWA. If you have not been actively involved in the section, it is never too late to get started. You can contact me or any one of the Officers of Committee Chairs for more information.